Whatever little hopes Mumbai Indians had of qualifying for the playoffs were dashed on Sunday as Rohit Sharma's men suffered their 8th defeat in a row, at the hands of Lucknow Super Giants. Propelled by a century from their skipper KL Rahul, LSG posted a total of 168/6 in 20 overs.
In reply, MI got off to a decent start, but suffered yet another uncharacteristic collapse, resulting in a record-eighth consecutive loss in IPL 2022 season.
Returning to their home turf at the Wankhede Stadium after a gap of 1083 days, Mumbai were hopeful that they can turn their woes around against Lucknow. It started brightly as well for the home side as skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first.
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They were even able to get rid of dangerman Quinton de Kock early, thanks to some quick reflexes of skipper Rohit, but KL Rahul continued his good form against Mumbai as he notched a second century of IPL 2022, coincidentally, the previous one also came against MI.
Rahul remained unbeaten at 103 off 62 balls and was ably supported by Manish Pandey (22 off 22). For Mumbai, Kieron Pollard and Riley Meredith both chipped in with a couple of wickets each.
Chasing a target of 169 runs, Mumbai were off to a cautious start as Rohit and Ishan tried to take a steady approach, but once Kishan was dismissed by a bizarre catch as the ball bounced off De Kock's shoes into the hands of Jason Holder, there was no stopping Lucknow.
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They then dismissed Rohit, Dewald Brevis and Suryakumar Yadav in quick succession. Tilak Varma and Kieron Pollard tried to counter-attack LSG as they gave MI fans a glimmer of hope but once Krunal Pandya dismissed Pollard, the writing was on the wall for Mumbai.
By the end, they were reduced to 132/8, and the five-time IPL champs ultimately succumbed to a record-eighth loss of this season.
