New Delhi, May 9 (HS). Mumbai Indians became the first team to be eliminated from the playoff race in IPL 2024 after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defeated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by ten wickets and 10.2 overs to spare on Wednesday.
After the win against LSG, Hyderabad team has reached third place in the points table with 14 points, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals occupy the top two places with 16 points each.
On May 14, LSG and Delhi Capitals will face each other and the winning team will score 14 points. If the Mumbai team wins its remaining two league matches, it can score a maximum of 12 points, which would take it out of the top four. The losing team will also face the same fate on Thursday, when Punjab Kings will play Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dharamshala.
Mumbai started the season with three consecutive losses under their new captain Hardik Pandya. Although they won three of their next four matches, four losses badly hurt their playoff chances.
Jasprit Bumrah has been one of the best performers for Mumbai, taking 18 wickets with an economy of 6.20 after 12 matches and he tops the list of highest wicket-takers. However, none of the team’s other bowlers have been so economical, and their batsmen have also performed poorly, with no one scoring over 400 after 12 innings. Tilak Verma is their top scorer with 384 runs at an average of 42.66, while Suryakumar Yadav is second with 334 runs in nine innings. Rohit Sharma has been able to score only 330 runs in 12 innings.
Hardik has also had a bad season, scoring only 198 runs in 11 innings and taking 11 wickets with an economy rate of 10.58. Despite giving chances to Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi and Nuwan Thushara, they have not been able to get the most out of their foreign players. Their spin department has been their weak point and they have taken only 13 of their 68 total wickets so far in the tournament. While they won three of their six matches at home, they found it tougher away, with their only win out of five coming against the Punjab Kings.
Their early elimination means Mumbai’s wait for their sixth IPL title continues, having won their fourth and fifth titles in 2019 and 2020. Since then, they have made the playoffs only once in four seasons, that too in 2023. There too they were eliminated by Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2.
