"When you go for overs of 20-plus, you end up losing matches"- Shane Bond outlines MI's comeback in IPL 2022

Mumbai Indians (MI) bowling coach Shane Bond has highlighted the reason behind the franchise's struggles this season. He feels that when a bowling unit concedes 20-plus-run overs in a T20 game, it inevitably leads to the team's defeat.

Mumbai bowler Daniel Sams conceded 25 and 35 runs in an over against Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders, respectively. His peer Basil Thampi was also smashed all over the park by Jos Buttler for 26 runs in MI's second match of IPL 2022 against Rajasthan Royals.

Understandably, Mumbai Indians lost those games by a comfortable margin and are now languishing at ninth in the points table with zero points.

In a press conference ahead of their clash against RCB, Shane Bond reflected on the performance of MI's bowling unit and highlighted their issues.

He felt that the bowlers performed well in patches but failed to maintain the same intensity levels throughout, which cost them. The 46-year old said:

"It's been a real mixed bag from us I suppose from a bowling unit. You look at the last game. The first ten overs were fantastic. We had a couple of overs that got away from us. It's been a little bit of a pattern for us, that we've done some really good stuff, we've taken out a number of the big players exactly how we thought we would - but when the game's been in the balance, we've gone for some overs of 20-plus. And when you go for overs of 20-plus, then you end up losing matches."

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"If we can stick to our plans when the pressure is on, then I think you'll see a turnaround" - Shane Bond on MI's comeback trail

Shane Bond urged his bowling unit to execute their plans perfectly and bowl in the right areas when encountering a pressure situation. In this regard, Bond said:

"It's a simple fix really. If we can stick to our plans and stick to the areas we want to bowl when the pressure is on, then I think you'll see a turnaround. As I said, I think we've seen that when we've executed our plans the way that we wanted to, we've been really successful."

Pointing out the positives from the game against KKR, Shane Bond added:

"We saw it in the last game against Andre Russell. Venkatesh Iyer, we made him work really hard for a fifty and bowled really well to him. We've just had one player who's come out in each game and hit 30-plus off sort of 10-11 balls which has taken the game away from us."

The Rohit Sharma-led side will now face an in-form Royal Challengers Bangalore team in their next game in IPL 2022 on April 9.