IPL 2021: Shane Bond Admits The Road To Playoffs Is Tough But Mumbai Indians Is Still In With A Chance

Mumbai Indians (MI) bowling coach Shane Bond reckoned the team has a lot of work to do in the upcoming two matches if they are to qualify for the playoffs and defend their title. MI lost to Delhi Capitals (DC) on Saturday and they are now in seventh place with 10 points from 12 matches.

Rohit Sharma and co. have been sloppy in the second leg of the IPL 2021 season so far. After the restart, they have won only one game while losing four, thereby losing their grip on the fourth place they had in the beginning. Bond admitted that the team isn’t playing his best at the moment but hoped for a quick turnaround in the final two league matches.

“We are playing okay, we know that we are playing nowhere near our best, but we are still in the competition. We’ll see what happens. We only had five wins, but if we can get two wins under our belt and a few results go our way,” he said after yesterday’s match.

We thought a score around 145 would be a winning total – Shane Bond

The New Zealander felt that the pitch was on the slower side so anything in excess of 140 would have been a competitive total. Despite putting only 128 on the board, MI was still in with a chance but a lower-order partnership involving Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin managed to guide the DC side home.

“We thought if we got a score around 145 it would probably be a winning total which probably proved to be right. Look, the bowlers gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game, but I think Delhi played well in the middle, they took some chances and we knew that it was going to get tougher,” he added.

Bond was also optimistic about Suryakumar Yadav getting back to form. After four terrible outings in the UAE, Suryakumar looked his usual self against Delhi but threw away his wicket at an inopportune moment in the game.

“He (Suryakumar Yadav) just played how he normally plays. He’s hitting the ball beautifully in training. He was getting that fluency and looked like the way he played last season. It’s just unfortunate that he’s getting out,” Bond concluded.

MI now needs to win their final two games and hope that other results go their way. Also, the win for DC all but guarantees a spot for them in the top two.

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