“We gave Miller and Manohar free hits” - Shane Bond laments MI’s poor bowling effort against GT

Mumbai Indians (MI) bowling coach Shane Bond expressed disappointment at his team’s bowling performance against Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match on Tuesday, April 25. The former Kiwi pacer lamented that the bowlers had given away too many “free hits” and allowed David Miller and Abhinav Manohar to dominate proceedings.

GT hammered MI by 55 runs in match number 35 of IPL 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. Bowling first after winning the toss, Mumbai did reasonably well to reduce Gujarat to 101/4 at one point. However, Manohar and Miller launched a counter-attack, adding 71 for the fifth wicket.

Gujarat ended up posting 207/6 on the board. In the chase, Mumbai managed only 152/9. Bond blamed MI’s lack of execution for the defeat.

Speaking at the post-match conference, he commented:

“It's [the loss] a combination of things. We're not executing what we need to. We've got pretty simple plans. Watch how we bowled in an area. We got hit and immediately resorted to some changes. It’s disappointing when we can’t distinguish plans when we are on the back foot during difficult run chases.

“Like in the last game, I think it was 100/4, and then we just dished up freebies." Bond added, "We gave (David) Miller and (Abhinav) Manohar free hits, and once we gave players to get in runs, they took the game away from us. And that's the disappointing thing from our point of view. So we just have to be better in our decision-making and our execution. In short, it was a tough day for us.”

While leg-spinner Piyush Chawla impressed again with figures of 2/34, Cameron Green was taken for 39 runs in two overs and Riley Meredith for 49 in four.

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“We had to try to manufacture something” - Bond praises GT bowlers

Chasing 208, Mumbai needed to get off to a quick start. However, Gujarat's bowlers did an excellent job as MI crawled to 29/1 at the end of the powerplay.

Praising GT’s bowlers for keeping Mumbai’s batters quiet in the crucial first few overs, Bond commented:

“When you chase 208, the only plan is to keep going. We (MI) tried to ride the storm as the ball swung differently. Look at the way Hardik and Mohammed Shami bowled, not giving us free balls to hit. We had to try to manufacture something. Thus, the score at the end of the powerplay reflected how they bowled on a wicket, which they did the same to RR.

“The first six overs were tough for both teams, as it would get difficult for the bowling team because of the dew factor. We were trying to stop the damage to our run rate, which has taken another big hit tonight.”

MI’s next game in IPL 2023 will be against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, April 30.