"The most clueless bowling line-up" - Fans unhappy with MI's bowling following 9-wicket loss to RR in IPL 2024

The Mumbai Indians (MI) were comprehensively beaten by the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Monday, April 22, in match number 38 of IPL 2024

Hardik Pandya won the toss for MI and elected to bat first. While Mumbai lost four early wickets, Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera bailed their team, scoring 65 and 49, respectively.

MI ultimately registered a decent 179-run total. However, their bowling let them down in the second half. RR chased down the target comfortably in 18.4 overs to secure a nine-wicket win.

Yashasvi Jaiswal roared back to form with his second IPL century. The RR opener remained unbeaten on 104. Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson mustered 35 and 38*, respectively, in the run chase.

Several fans took to social media, slamming MI's bowling for picking up just one wicket. Here are some of the top reactions:

Several fans pointed out how, apart from Jasprit Bumrah, the remaining MI bowlers have failed to make a significant impact this season.

"Mi bowling without bumrah is just like rcb bowling!" wrote a fan

"This is how bad #MI bowling attack can look like when Bumrah has an off-day. Remember out of MI's 3 wins in 8 matches, PBKS ran them very close." commented another.

"anyways we've been talking about what is going to happen mi's bowling unit when bumrah has an off day..... here we go." chimed in another fan.

Certain MI supporters also criticized the team management and skipper Hardik Pandya for the team's bowling plans or lack thereof.

"You’ve got a Ferrari, G-Wagon and Land Rover. If you don’t know how to use them with respect to terrain and weather, you’re neither a good owner nor a decent driver. Pathetic bowling spells. Sums up MI so far." posted a user.

"I hthink MI should improve the bowling side and if it goes at this rate I dont think it can make it into the playoff, poor captaincy, poor bowling, no clear strategy, unacceptable performance." commented another.

"Yeah give that century to him, MI has been the most clueless bowling line-up of 2024 IPL." wrote yet another.

Piyush Chawla was the only Mumbai bowler to claim a wicket in the encounter. Rajasthan's right-arm pacer Sandeep Sharma was named the Player of the Match for his stunning five-wicket haul.

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"Early on in the powerplay, we gave a lot of width" - Hardik Pandya on MI's bowling performance

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Hardik Pandya opined that MI missed a trick by giving the RR batters a lot of width in the powerplay overs.

He also suggested that Mumbai failed to finish their innings with a flurry and were 10-15 runs shot. Assessing his team's performance against Rajasthan, Pandya said:

"We put ourselves in trouble early on. The way Tilak and Nehal batted - that was fantastic. I don't think that when we lost a couple of wickets early we thought we would even reach 180. We didn't finish well and that's why we were 10-15 runs short. We had to keep it within the stumps (while bowling). Early on in the powerplay, we gave a lot of width and I don't think it was our best day in the field as well. Overall, we did not put the right foot on the park and eventually they outplayed us."

After slumping to their fifth loss in eight matches, MI find themselves at the seventh place in the IPL 2024 points table.