Five-time champions Mumbai Indians have been eliminated from the Indian Premier League 2024 playoffs race after Sunrisers Hyderabad thrashed Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday. Inconsistent Mumbai had to rely on the other teams' results to keep their playoff hope alive, but it didn't last long as SRH crushed it alongside LSG in Hyderabad.
Hardik Pandya and Co. claimed a clinical 7-wicket win over SRH in their last match as the latter took the revenge by knocking them out of the competition with a 10-wicket triumph against KL Rahul's LSG on Wednesday.
MI, who are placed at the ninth spot on the points table, became the first team to get knocked out of the playoffs race. However, at the bottom of the table - Gujarat Titans still have a slim chance as they have played one much less than Mumbai.
Pandya's MI have won just four matches out of 12 this season as they failed to put up a collective effort on the field. Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, other star players, including Rohit Sharma, lacked consistency in their performance, which led to the downfall of the side.
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Meanwhile, with the win, SRH moved to the third position in the standings with 14 points from 12 games, while LSG are struggling at the sixth spot with 12 points from the same number of matches.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, with the win, SRH moved to the third position in the standings with 14 points from 12 games, while LSG are struggling at the sixth spot with 12 points from the same number of matches.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, after the win over SRH in the last match, MI somehow managed to keep themselves alive in the race, but their skipper, Hardik Pandya, was not so sure about the absurd mathematical calculations.
"I don't know which mathematical situation we're talking about, but at the same time, you want to focus on playing good cricket," Hardik said in the post-match presentation when asked by former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar about MI's chances of making it to the next round.
Mumbai didn't look like a settled unit right from their first match of the season, as the change in captaincy also reportedly stirred tension in the group. MI's last IPL game is against Lucknow Super Giants at home on May 17, it will be interesting to see whether the team management will give rest to T20 World Cup-bound India players in the remaining matches now.