Five-time champions Mumbai Indians have had a horror start to Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season. On Thursday (April 21), MI became the first team ever to lose their first seven matches of an IPL season after their three-wicket defeat to defending champions Chennai Super Kings.
With each team playing 14 matches in the league round, Rohit Sharma’s MI have already lost half of them. At best, the franchise can go on to win the next 7 matches. But will that be enough to qualify for the IPL 2022 playoffs?
In IPL 2014, Mumbai had lost 5 matches in a row but had still managed to reach the knockouts. This time however, things have become trickier.
A team needs a minimum of 14 points to qualify for the playoffs. But that isn’t enough on its own. While 16 points could be enough to take a team through to the next round, 14 points can be deemed enough if the franchise’s Net Run Rate is good enough.
MI presently have an NRR of -0.892. Even if they go on to win all of their remaining games, they would need to do that with big margins in order to improve their NRR. While it’s not officially all over, there is only a mathematical possibility for them which will be difficult to achieve this.
Mumbai Indians’ remaining matches:
April 24: vs Lucknow Super Giants, 7.30pm IST, Wankhede Stadium
April 30: vs Rajasthan Royals, 7.30pm IST, DY Patil Stadium
May 6: vs Gujarat Titans, 7.30pm IST, Brabourne Stadium
May 9: vs Kolkata Knight Riders, 7.30pm IST, DY Patil Stadium
May 12: vs Chennai Super Kings, 7.30pm IST, Wankhede Stadium
May 17: vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 7.30pm IST, Wankhede Stadium
May 21: vs Delhi Capitals, 7.30pm IST, Wankhede Stadium
After facing a defeat in a last-ball thriller against Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma expressed disappointment and said that it’s hard to put a finger on anything. MS Dhoni turned back the clock on Thursday scoring an unbeaten 28 from 13 balls to hand Chennai Super Kings their second win of IPL 2022 as they defeated Mumbai Indians by three wickets at the DY Patil Stadium.
The batter scored 17 runs in the last over, which was being bowled by Jaydev Undakat. “In the end, it was a great fight from us, we were in the game after not batting well, the bowlers kept us in, but in the end, you know how towering MSD can be and he took them home. It’s hard to put a finger on anything, but we’re not starting well in the match. If you lose quick wickets, you’ll always be playing the catching game,” said Rohit Sharma in a post-match presentation.
“But I thought we did well to keep them under pressure, we did so until the last over, but Pretorius and Dhoni took them home. We always back ourselves to do well, but as I said, we lost too many early wickets, we did make a good comeback with both bat and ball, but it wasn`t enough in the end,” he added.
