Mumbai Indians (MI), the most successful IPL team with five titles, has claimed an unwanted record in the ongoing edition of the Twenty20 tournament.
The Rohit Sharma-led side suffered its seventh straight loss in IPL 2022 on Thursday night (April 21).
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MI’s latest reversal came against four-time champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
M S Dhoni again produced a memorable finishing knock of 28 not out off 13 balls to help CSK win a last-ball thriller by three wickets.
Mumbai has now become the first team in the history of IPL to start the season with seven successive losses. In IPL 2013, Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and in IPL 2019, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had started off the IPL seasons with six defeats in a row.
In the previous editions, there have been 11 instances of teams losing seven games in a row, but that did not come at the start of the season. Also, another unwanted record is that Mumbai is the first former champion to have lost seven in a row.
After the match, MI captain Rohit Sharma said the team fought till the end but Dhoni’s knock made the difference.
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“In the end, it was a great fight from us, we were in the game after not batting well, the bowlers kept us in, but in the end, you know how towering MS Dhoni can be and he took them home,” Rohit said.
“It’s hard to put a finger on anything, but we’re not starting well in the match. If you lose quick wickets, you’ll always be playing the catching game. But I thought we did well to keep them under pressure, we did so until the last over, but (Dwaine) Pretorius and Dhoni took them home. We always back ourselves to do well, but as I said, we lost too many early wickets, we did make a good comeback with both bat and ball, but it wasn’t enough in the end,” he added.
Mumbai’s next game is against Lucknow Super Giants (LSC) on Sunday (April 24) at its home ground Wankhede Stadium.