Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya has blamed the loss against Delhi Capitals (DC) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on April 27 on ‘lack of intent shown by Tilak Varma’ in the middle overs. Notably, Tilak was MI’s highest scorer with 63 off 32 before being run out on the first ball of the last over in a chase of 258.
“Axar bowling to a left-hander [Tilak], the better option could have been to go after him,” Hardik said after the game. “I think it was just a little game awareness that we missed out. At the end of the day, that cost us the game,” said Pandya after the 10-run loss.
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Hardik’s comments came on the back of left-hand batter Tilak’s slow start during which he scored 10 off 10 balls, mostly facing the left-arm spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel – a favourable match-up in the format. Tilak eventually broke the shackles by sending Axar for 10 runs on the last two balls of his second over – which proved to be his last in the match.
“The way the games are going and how the bowlers are under pressure throughout the competition, we backed ourselves to do it, the self-belief [was there],” Hardik said about MI’s mindset on chasing the total. 
“But if I have to pinpoint, a couple overs in the middle, we could’ve taken some extra chances,” he added.
With the loss, MI’s sixth in nine games, it has now become almost confirmed that the five-time champions won’t be able qualify for the playoff in their first season under skipper Pandya. 
DC, on the other hand, are having a bit of turnaround with five wins and same number of losses in 10 games. They currently are fifth on the 10-team points table.