Mumbai Indians’ IPL 2024 playoff dreams were dealt a massive blow as they slumped to a 10-run defeat against Delhi Capitals on Saturday. Jasprit Bumrah and Co looked completely helpless as explosive knocks from Jake Fraser-McGurk and Tristan Stubbs took DC to a massive total of 257/4. In response, Tilak Varma and Tim David produced a brilliant fightback but it was not enough as MI suffered their sixth loss of the season. MI have just 6 points from 9 matches with a Net Run Rate of -0.261. On the other hand, the victory took DC to the fifth position with 10 points from 10 matches.
The defeat means that MI still remain in the race for the IPL 2024 playoffs but they will have to win all of their remaining matches. Victories in their last 5 matches will take the Hardik Pandya-led side to a maximum of 16 points – a mark that may end up proving enough for qualification.
However, there is no guarantee that MI will qualify with 16 points and they may have to depend on other results going their way in order to find a place in the Top 4 after the group stage.
“This game is becoming more and more closer. It (the difference) used to be a couple of overs, now it’s becoming a couple of balls. Because of the kind of games and how the bowlers are under pressure, we backed ourselves to do it. If I had to pick something out, we could have taken a couple of more chances in the middle overs. The left-handers could have probably gone after Axar a little bit, it’s something we missed out in terms of game awareness. It was quite amazing the way he (Fraser-McGurk) batted, he took calculated risks, he played the field really well. It shows the fearlessness of youth. (If he would’ve done something different at the toss) Not really,” Hardik said after the match.
