Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya blamed Tilak Varma’s lack of game awareness for the defeat against Delhi Capitals on April 27. Batting first, the Capitals went on a rampage from the start, with Jake Fraser-McGurk scoring 84 while Tristan Stubbs (48*) and Shai Hope (41) also chipped in with crucial innings. Hardik was the most expensive MI bowler, conceding 41 runs off his two overs at an economy rate of 20.50.
Hardik scored 46 and was the second highest-scorer for Mumbai after Tilak, who accumulated 63 before he was run out.
Pandya was unimpressed with how Tilak handled one portion of the contest.
“Tilak Varma should have gone after Axar Patel. I think we lack the game awareness and it cost us the match against Delhi Capitals at the end of the day,” he said.
Axar bowled the eighth over of the MI innings. Overall, he delivered 12 balls, with Tilak facing 6. He took singles on the first four balls. Tilak then hit a six and a four on the successive two balls to help Mumbai reach 115 for three at the 10th over mark. Axar was not given another over by Rishabh Pant. Tilak Varma was run out in the last over of the game.
“The matches have been high scoring and the bowlers are conceding a lot of runs. Keeping this in mind, we should have scored some extra runs in the middle overs. However, we failed to achieve what we wanted,” he added.
Pandya also praised Fraser-McGurk, who scored 84 runs for Delhi.