'It was just a setback…..'Captain Hardik Pandya furious after losing to Punjab Kings, warned players before knockout

The 69th match of IPL 2025 was played on Monday between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. In this match, Mumbai Indians suffered a crushing defeat by 7 wickets at the hands of Punjab. With this win, Punjab has confirmed its place inside the top 2 positions in the points table. Whereas Mumbai Indians will have to play the eliminator match first to reach Qualifier-2. After this defeat, captain Hardik Pandya looked very disappointed and he asked his players to learn from it, so let's know what Pandya said…..

After the humiliating defeat by 7 wickets at the hands of Punjab Kings, Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya said in the post-match presentation, 'The way the wicket was playing, we fell 20 runs behind. It happens. We are playing good cricket, but could not do it tonight. We have won five trophies, it has always been difficult. Our bowling was not clinical, they also played good shots. Just want to play good cricket going forward, want to find the right template for the batting group. There is not much panic though, we knew what was at stake. Nothing has changed from the situation four days ago in which we find ourselves back. The message will be simple, it was just a setback, learn from it and be ready for the knockout.'

Mumbai's batting proved to be a flop

In the crucial match against Punjab Kings, the batting of Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians proved to be a flop in a bad way. In this match, former captain Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton gave the team a steady start of 45 runs in 31 balls. In an attempt to hit big in the last over of the power play, Ryan returned to the pavilion after scoring 27 runs in 20 balls. While Rohit Sharma could also play an innings of 24 runs in 21 balls. At the same time, Tilak Verma (1), Will Jacks (17), Naman Dheer (20) and captain Hardik Pandya (26) also failed to contribute with the bat.

However, Suryakumar Yadav, who came to bat in the sixth over, remained at the crease till the end and played an important role in taking Mumbai to a respectable score of 184 runs. Against Punjab, Surya scored 57 runs in 39 balls, which included 6 fours and two towering sixes. Apart from Surya, no other MI batsman could play a big innings in this match.