Mumbai Indians' journey in the IPL 2026 is over. The five-time champions will return empty-handed yet again from the IPL. After their fifth IPL title in 2020, MI are yet to win the tournament. In the four seasons since then, including 2026, MI did not even enter the playoffs. MI lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru by two wickets on Sunday. The match saw MI notch up 166/7 in 20 overs, with Tilak Varma top-scoring with a 57, with able support from Naman Dhir (47). Later, Krunal Pandya scored a heroic 73 as RCB reached the target on the last ball. RCB's innings saw a fielding confusion between Tilak and Dhir.
The incident happened in the 18th over of the match when Krunal Pandya slammed the ball from Allah Ghazanfar towards the long-on boundary. Dhir completed the catch but could not control himself from crossing the boundary. While he was able to throw the ball back into the ground in time, Tilak thought that it was already a six and did not go for the relay catch. It led to an animated chat between the two cricketers and, although the batters did not take a run, it proved to be quite costly as Krunal slammed two sixes in the over before his dismissal. Clearly, both Naman and Tilak were animated.
Former India star Murali Kartik was not amused with what he saw.
"It's a tough one to say. For us to speculate from afar is not the right thing. Even if you are a commentator and are on the ground, you don't know what exactly is happening. Sometimes, with big teams, when things aren't going well, the easiest target is something like this. But one thing did upset me," said Kartik on Cricbuzz.
17th over, 2nd ball bowled by Allah Ghazanfar to Krunal Pandya.
— Incognito (@Incognito_qfs) May 10, 2026
Krunal Pandya hits it towards wide long on.
Naman Dhir caught the ball near the boundary, and just when he was about to cross the boundary, he tossed the ball towards Tilak who didn't catch it.
Instead of… pic.twitter.com/KSw9yUIU8f
"You spoke about the catch that Naman Dhir should have taken - just that interaction at that point in time. It wasn't needed. Yes, they didn't take a single. They didn't take a run because Krunal was cramping at that time. But you don't need a fight in the middle or a bit of an altercation or argument. As Naman Dhir suggested, you should be throwing the ball. I don't know whether that's reflective of anything, but that is something that shouldn't have happened."
He added that cricketers need to have common sense. "It's very tough for us to speculate. Yes, there have been a million murmurs going around. Yes, there are things which haven't happened, and yes, the last three years haven't gone the way MI would have wanted. But for me, I didn't want to see what I saw today. All of us are pretty intense on the ground, but at a time where common sense and cricket smarts need to take over," said Kartik.
"At a crucial stage, you don't want two people to have an argument at the end of the boundary rope. You don't want to see that."
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/P4ZJYaX
