The Mumbai Indians (MI) vs Delhi Capitals (DC) match at the Wankhede Stadium on April 7 was an important one. This was MI’s first win in IPL 2024. With the first point on the board, Mumbai jumped up to 8th position in the points table. After the win, Mumbai fans got to see an emotional moment when Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya hugged each other after the match.
Fans are not happy with Rohit losing the captaincy to Hardik, especially after two consecutive defeats. During the last game at Wankhede, the MI captain was criticized by his home crowd. The situation went so out of control that Sanjay Manjrekar, who was overseeing the toss of Mumbai’s match with Rajasthan Royals (RR), had to urge the crowd to “behave”.
Mumbai Indians Wins
However, on April 7, fans saw Rohit and Hardik in a happy mood. After securing their first win in IPL 2024, they hugged and patted each other on the back, quashing speculations of a rift between the former and current MI captains.
Earlier media reports had revealed that Hardik Pandya was ignored by many players of the team, including senior players like Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit himself. After Mumbai’s first match (against Gujarat), Rohit was seen having an animated conversation with Hardik. Before this conversation, Pandya hugged him from behind, but Rohit did not give any such response.
Navjot Singh Sidhu’s advice
As Navjot Singh Sidhu said earlier, “There is nothing greater than success. If Mumbai Indians had won the last two matches, everyone would have remained silent.
Sidhu’s comments came after Mumbai’s second defeat against RR. His advice to Pandya was: “I think he should focus on team combination.”
Mumbai Indians worked on their team combination and brought back West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd for the match against DC. His performance of 39 off just 10 balls proved crucial, especially in the 20th over, where his aggressive batting, which included two fours and four sixes off Anrich Nortje, turned the match. His 32 runs in the last over helped MI win against DC by 29 runs.
Shepherd also scored 15 runs in 6 balls with the help of two fours and a 6 in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on 27 March, but he was dropped in the next match against RR on 1 April.
However, his performance against DC highlighted his importance to the Mumbai Indians team in this IPL.
Also Read: RR vs RCB Cricket Clash: IPL 2024 Match 19 Preview