Mumbai Indians’ dismaying campaign at the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) finally concluded on Friday (17 May), but not without another defeat, suffering an 18-run loss against Lucknow Super Giants on this occasion. With this defeat, Mumbai have finished plum last in the points table, with merely four wins and eight points from 14 matches.
This marks among the worst-ever seasons for the five-time champions, equaling the record of their most defeats in a single edition – 10. This is also only the second instance where they finished at the bottom of the table.
Assessing the team’s performance, or the lack of it, skipper Hardik Pandya said it will be difficult to put his finger on one specific aspect which went wrong, as the season in its entirety went wrong for the franchise.
We did not play good quality cricket and it cost us the whole season. As a group, we did not play quality cricket and it showed in the results. It is too early to exactly point out what went wrong, but the whole season kind of went wrong. Hopefully, we can pass on this game as another one that went wrong and look forward to the next season.Hardik Pandya
On being asked about how he kept the dressing room motivated despite a string of underwhelming results, Pandya stated it was not difficult as bad days are a frequent occurrence in the professional realm.
It is a professional world, sometimes there will be good and sometimes there will be bad days. We have to always come out and put our best foot forward. I don’t think that was a problem.Hardik Pandya
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