3 harsh lessons for MI after elimination in IPL 2025 Qualifier 2 ft. Mitchell Santner's quota of overs

Punjab Kings beat Mumbai Indians by five wickets in Qualifier 2 of the ongoing Indian Premier League at the Narendra Modi Stadium (Motera) in Ahmedabad on Sunday, June 1. Shreyas Iyer's blistering knock of an unbeaten 87 runs off just 41 balls sealed the deal for PBKS as they chased down a target of 204 in just 19 overs.

MI, who had never lost an IPL game after going past the 200-run mark in the first innings before this game, were in for a shock as most of their reputed bowlers went for runs (even the great Jasprit Bumrah remained wicketless) and skipper Hardik Pandya couldn't do much but watch and appreciate the way Iyer took this challenge head-on.

MI would have become the first team in history to win the IPL six times had they won this game and thereon the final, but for now, that dream has been put to bed. There were a lot of tough lessons for them in this game, and one expects them to learn and get better by next season.

In this listicle, we talk about three harsh lessons learnt by MI from this game:

#3 Not completing Hardik Pandya and Mitchell Santner's quota of overs

One of the harshest lessons that MI must have learnt from this defeat is the fact that they should have allowed Hardik Pandya and Mitchell Santner to complete their respective quota of four overs each. Pandya ended the game with just two overs under his belt and conceded 19 runs, while also taking the wicket of the dangerous Josh Inglis.

Santner, on the other hand, gave away just 15 runs in the two overs he bowled before he was asked to stop by captain Pandya. While southpaw Nehal Wadhera being dropped by Trent Boult seemed to have a role in Santner not bowling, it was hard to fathom why Pandya did not bowl himself more in this game.

The MI skipper showed more faith in his top four pacers - Boult, Reece Topley, Jasprit Bumrah and Ashwani Kumar - but all of them went for more than 9.50 runs per over. Had Pandya trusted himself to bowl or given the ball to Santner even though the left-hander was around, things may have been different.

#2 Failure to execute plans

One of the biggest mistakes MI committed in this game was not sticking to their game plan. While hindsight is always 20/20, and it is easy to criticise Pandya's decision to not bowl himself or Santner, it was the failure to execute their strategy that cost MI deep. However, they also need to accept that Shreyas Iyer was batting as if in a trance in this match.

Perhaps the biggest letdown for the MI bowling unit was young Ashwani Kumar, who repeatedly fed slot deliveries to Iyer, and ended his quota of four overs after conceding a whopping 55 runs. Bumrah, too, went for 40 runs in his four overs, and surprisingly, remained wicketless till the end. The India speedster was left in awe after Iyer repeatedly made easy work of his yorkers, guiding them past short third man.

#1 Dropped chances do not lead to IPL titles

Dropped catches turned out to be MI's bane in this game, with the one where Boult dropped Wadhera almost single-handedly turned the tide in PBKS' favour. This happened in the 10th over, when Wadhera top-edged Pandya towards Boult at fine leg, but the ball seemed to have slipped out of the Kiwi's hands completely.

Earlier, Naman Dhir had been the recipient of a chance, also from Wadhera. Trying to pull a short delivery off Santner, Wadhera ended up hitting the ball just over Dhir at deep midwicket. However, Dhir had come far too many yards inside the field to get a better look at the ball and let it sail just over his head for a four.

Had Dhir remained close to the ropes and not come inside, it would have been an easy catch, and Wadhera would have had to depart. The latter eventually scored 48 off just 29 balls, but had those chances been taken, things might have ended up in MI's favour, and they could have attempted to win their sixth IPL title.