Mumbai Indians bowling coach Shane Bond lashed out at his bowlers for their below-par show against Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League match on Tuesday. After a brilliant start with the ball, Mumbai failed to contain Lucknow and went on to leak too many runs in the death overs.
LSG were 35/3 after 6.1 overs but Marcus Stonis displayed his brute power to help them post a challenging 177/3 in 20 overs. Stonis took over the charge over MI bowlers and stamped his authority over them during his unbeaten 89-run knock which was laced with 8 sixes and 4 fours.
Bond said leaking 54 runs in the last three overs is unacceptable on a ground like Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow.
“You can never stop good players from scoring runs. You’d rather have players scoring 89 from 47 be at 70 from 47. Those 17 to 20 runs can make a difference. We’ve talked about that at Wankhede over the course of the year. You are talking about a difference of 10-15 runs. There’s no way we should have gone for 54 runs in the last three overs on that ground. It was just poor,” Bond said in the post-match press conference.
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Chris Jordan, who was picked as a replacement for Jofra Archer, had a forgettable night as he leaked 24 runs in the 18th over.
Bond admitted that the MI bowlers failed to stick to the plans and were not consistent with the ball against Stoinis who played a blistering knock.
“For me, the most frustrating thing is about not sticking to the plans that we talk about. We were very clear with what we wanted to do on this wicket to players like Marcus and where we wanted to bowl, we didn’t bowl there consistently enough. For me, the most frustrating thing is about not sticking to the plans that we talk about. We were very clear with what we wanted to do on this wicket to players like Marcus and where we wanted to bowl, we didn’t bowl there consistently enough,” he added.
The legendary Kiwi paceman said that the bowlers allowed Stoinis to hit them straight down the ground as they failed to execute their plans against him.
“We saw that with Stoinis – a fine player. We knew he was trying to hit straight down the ground and we dished out balls for him to do it. In the end, his innings was the difference between the two teams,” he said.
The MI bowling coach pointed out that it happened with them against Gujarat Titans too when Rashid Khan took the bowlers for cleaners in the second half to reduce the margin of win for the hosts.
“We’ve always prided ourselves in our preparation, the work that we do behind the scenes and how we review the game – the mistakes on which we want to improve. The frustrating thing is that we’re making the same mistake over and over again. From my point of view, it’s disappointing. For 15 overs, we were excellent, we delivered what we wanted to. One player put us under pressure. That’s what Rashid Khan did the other night and we made the same mistakes. It didn’t cost us in the last game, it definitely cost us tonight,” Bond said.
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