Beyond Jasprit Bumrah, there is not much in Mumbai Indians’ bowling attack and they need to improve in that department of the game, said West Indian legend Brian Lara after MI lost to Chennai Super Kings by 20 runs in their IPL match. Bumrah (0/27 from 4 overs) had an ordinary day against CSK considering the high standard he sets for himself and captain Hardik Pandya was hammered for three consecutive sixes by peerless MS Dhoni as MI lost the match at home on Sunday night. (IPL 2024 Points Table)

“Not much, I think when we look at Mumbai Indians, a lot of people have them as favourites, simply because they were batting so well, they scored 230 runs, they chased on 196, made it look very easy, 15 overs, so on that fact I think, we pick them as favourites,” Lara said on Star Sports’ Cricket Live Show.

“But their bowling is poor. Beyond Jasprit Bumrah, there is no one to actually support them in that bowling attack, and the CSK batters took them apart.” MI did not use their spinners after the eighth over as Shivam Dube, who has been impressive against the slow bowlers, was at the crease.

“The spinners, they only bowled 4 overs after around 7 runs an over, but they weren’t trusted with Shivam Dube out there. So, MI will have to improve in that area, they’ve got to find a couple of bowlers, match-winning bowlers,” the batting great said.

“What it tells me more about this game is that, if you’ve got a good bowling unit, like CSK, you look at their bowling, every single bowler played a part in that game, every single bowler.

“We had dot balls at the time, we thought that Mumbai Indians were supposed to accelerate, they didn’t.” On Pandya being hit for three consecutive sixes in the last over, Lara said, “For me, Hardik Pandya had it tough, I think he turned himself in the last couple of over, the master (MS Dhoni) did, you know, three sixes in the last 4-5 balls.” Sri Lankan Matheesha Pathirana (4/28) was the pick of the CSK bowlers who stopped MI to 186 for 6 in 20 overs, 21 runs short of winning target, and former England captain Kevin Pietersen praised the “unorthodox” right-arm pacer.

“Very unorthodox, and with unorthodox bowlers you’ve got to sometimes just mind your gap as they say, because you’ve got to get used to his delivery, and you’ve got to get used to where the ball is coming from, because it’s not the ordinary and normal, and it’s abnormal.

“So, you’ve got to bide your time … when he’s bowling so beautifully with the older ball, and he’s also got that wonderful ability to not reverse in swing the ball, but he’s got the ball to reverse and dip, and that’s quite a hard ball to face.” Pietersen compared Pathirana with Sri Lanka great Lasith Malinga who is with MI currently as a bowling coach.

“It was something that Malinga had as well, it was reverse, but it wasn’t reverse in, it was reverse down, and that’s always going away from the angle of where you’re trying to hit the ball,” he said.

“When you’ve got a bowler that’s coming at an angle, but it’s not coming on at a natural angle, it’s coming on at an angle that actually starts to dip on you, then you can’t actually play the sweep, you can’t play the ramp, because it’s going to get under your bat, and then it also makes it really hard to hit down the ground. It’s a gem for CSK, what a bowler.”

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