We didn’t lose just because of Dhoni’s assault in last two overs, says Mumbai’s Parthiv Patel

Table toppers Mumbai Indians slumped to a 20-run loss in the first Qualifier of the Indian Premier League on Tuesday night, after being in control for almost 18 overs of Rising Pune Supergiant’s innings. However, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s belligerent death over assault, Pune reached a respectable 162 in 20 overs, with a massive 41 runs coming off the last two overs. After that, the Mumbai batsman got a start, but three quick wickets between overs five and seven, meant Pune were well and truly on top

However, Mumbai’s Parthiv Patel refused to blame the last two overs for the team’s loss.

“These kinds of things can happen in this format when someone like (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni is batting. Obviously we were in control, but I won’t say it (loss) was just because of those two overs,” he said in the post-match media conference at the Wankhede Stadium.

Dhoni smashed five sixes, taking Mitchell McClenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah to the cleaners. But Patel defended Bumrah plan to bowl short of length instead of yorkers in the initial few to Dhoni. The Indian pacer bowled successive yorkers on the last balls, which were dot-balls.

“If you see the last couple of games or even last year, he had been successful against Dhoni with the kind of length he was bowling. He obviously is a good player and has been bowling brilliantly throughout the tournament. You got to sometimes give credit to the batsman. (After) one odd game like this, you have to give credit to someone (Dhoni) who has played so many knocks like this,” Patel said.

Patel also refuted the suggestion that resting key players in the previous game affected their intensity as he felt the break was needed for all to recharge.

“Not really. I had niggle and stayed back. I played with niggles in the last three or four games. It (break) was needed and rightly so and we were sure of the first or second position,” said wicketkeeper-batsman who top-scored for his side with a 52-run knock.

Patel was of the opinion that the 160-odd that the Supergiant scored was “par score” on the Wankhede track.

“We were thinking 160, but we lost too many wickets after six overs,” he said referring to Supergiant rookie off-spinner Washinton Sundar, whose triple strike early on that had Mumbai stuttering 51 for 4 after eight overs.

Sundar’s victims included captain Rohit Sharma and two other seasoned players, Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard.

Patel also backed the team management’s decision to drop MI’s highly successful and experienced off-spinner Harbhajan Singh from the game.

“You can look at it in both ways. Seeing all right- handers it was decided to go in with two away going (spinning) bowlers,” said Patel on the decision to leave out Harbhajan and include leggie Karn Sharma and left arm Krunal Pandya.

Patel also pointed out that all is not lost for Mumbai in their quest for the IPL title, as they have another Qualifier to go. He said the key was to put the loss behind and focus on reaching the final in the next match.

“We got to believe in ourselves. We got another chance because we played well throughout the tournament. That’s the reason we got another chance of playing the Eliminator. It’s very important for us to forget what has happened today and treat the next game as the semifinal,” he added.