Young pacer Akash Madhwal was the only positive for the Mumbai Indians in their 6-wicket defeat against the Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede stadium.
MI managed to score only 125 runs batting first, and RR chased down the target comfortably with 27 balls to spare.
Akash Madhwal picked three wickets – those of Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and R Ashwin. Madhwal used the spiciness of the Wankhede surface to bowl bumpers and hard-length deliveries and got the better of experienced batters like Buttler and Samson.
In the dressing room, an interesting turn of events happened. The Ambani mother and son duo of Nita Ambani and Akash Ambani, the owners of the Mumbai Indians, awarded Akash Madhwal the dressing room Player of the match badge.
The young pacer accepted the award gleefully, but he dedicated it to former captain Rohit Sharma for always supporting him.
After being given the dressing room Player of the match badge, Akash Madhwal said, “Thank you so much for this opportunity. And thank you Rohit. He has supported me a lot. This one goes to him.”
[Watch] Akash Madhwal Insults Ambanis By Dedicting Dressing Room POTM Award To Rohit Sharma
![[Watch] Akash Madhwal Insults Ambanis By Dedicting Dressing Room POTM Award To Rohit Sharma](https://thecricketlounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Akash-Madhwal-1.webp)
Akash Madhwal dedicated his POTM to Rohit Sharma in front of Akash Ambani and Hardik Pandya.
Rohit is still the leader of MI. š„ pic.twitter.com/QTi3loB0nk
— Selflessā“āµ (@SelflessCricket) April 2, 2024
Speaking about the match, Mumbai Indians were rattled early on by their former pacer Trent Boult, who took three early wickets in his first two overs. Nandre Burger and Avesh Khan took a wicket each while Chahal grabbed three scalps.
MI’s top-scorer was their captain Hardik Pandya, who had been booed by the crowd heavily at toss, but got some cheers when he hit six boundaries in his 34 (21). MI managed only 125 runs which RR gunned down easily despite losing three early wickets.
After the loss, Pandya said, Yes, a tough night, we didn’t start the way we wanted to start. I wanted to counter, we were in a decent position to get us around 150-160, but my wicket allowed them to get back more into the game, I needed to do a lot more. It’s okay, we didn’t expect such a surface, but you can’t always have it as a batter, it’s nice at times for the bowlers to have a say. It’s all about doing the right things, (correct) results happen at times, at some other times it doesn’t. As a group, we believe we can do a lot better, but we need to be a bit more disciplined and show a lot more courage.”
Also Read: IPL 2024: Why Did Riyan Parag Get Orange Cap Over Virat Kohli Despite Both Batters Having Same Runs?
