IPL 2024: Hardik Pandya questions Tilak Varma's 'match awareness' during DC vs MI clash, says 'cost us the game'

DC vs MI IPL 2024: Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya reacts during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians at Arun Jaitley Stadium, in New Delhi, Saturday, April 27, 2024. (PTI Photo)

Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya who lost the game against the Delhi Capital (DC) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on April 27 has now criticised the missed opportunity from left-handed batsman, Tilak Varma during left-handed bowler Axar Patel’s spell.

While speaking during the post-match presentation, Pandya said, “Axar bowling to a left-hander [Tilak], the better option could have been to go after him. I think it was just a little game awareness that we missed out. At the end of the day, that cost us the game.”

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DC’s Axar Patel gave away 24 runs in the two overs he bowled. Speaking of MI’s Tilak Varma, he was the top scorer for MI in yesterday’s match. Varma made 63 runs off 32 balls, including 4 fours and 4 sixes.

Coming back to Pandya, the skipper added that the game was becoming increasingly close. “This game is becoming more and more closer. It (the difference) used to be a couple of overs, now it’s becoming a couple of balls. Because of the kind of games and how the bowlers are under pressure, we backed ourselves to do it. If I had to pick something out, we could have taken a couple of more chances in the middle overs.”

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Furthermore, Pandya also complimented DC’s Fraser-McGurk on his knock. “It was quite amazing the way he (Fraser-McGurk) batted, he took calculated risks, he played the field really well. It shows the fearlessness of youth. (If he would’ve done something different at the toss) not really,” he said during the post-match presentation.

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DC vs MI IPL 2024:

Fraser-McGurk’s powerful knock of 84 off 27 balls with 11 fours and 6 sixes gave the target of 257 to Mumbai India. Apart from this, Rasikh Dar Salam, Mukesh Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed’s supercharged pace attack helped DC defeat MI by 10 runs. After yesterday’s match, Rishabh Pant team stand at number 5 on the points table with 10 points with a net run rate of -0.276 while Mumbai Indians remain on the ninth position with 6 points.