Mumbai Indians are not writing off their IPL campaign, even after a difficult stretch that has left them with six defeats across eight matches. Kieron Pollard insisted the mindset within the camp remains “down, not out”, following MI’s six-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede on Wednesday night.
Pollard said the team has acknowledged that results have not gone their way often enough, but has not accepted the broader idea of defeat. “We haven’t taken defeat as a given, but we have accepted that we’ve been on the losing side more frequently than not in this tournament,” he said after the match. He added that MI need to produce a full, disciplined performance to win at this stage, because the margin for error is shrinking as the competition progresses.
“We need to play a complete game of cricket if we want to win, because it’s becoming tough the way things are unfolding. What I can say from the dressing room is that the energy and spirit of the guys is strong—they’re willing and they want to fight. Things like this happen,” Pollard said. He also stressed that the loss, while painful, is not the end of the road, adding that there are more serious matters in life as well.
MI’s batting coach continued: “At the end of the day, it’s still cricket — two teams play, you win some and you lose some. And we’ve been on the losing side.”
With MI sitting ninth in the points table after recording only two victories from eight games, Pollard pointed out that their situation still leaves room for a comeback. “When I used the word ‘defeat’, I didn’t want it to sound like Mumbai Indians are out of the tournament. Mathematically and from a points perspective, we’re still very much in it,” he explained.
Pollard further clarified his earlier remarks, saying he wanted to be precise about where the team stands. “I just felt that sometimes you have to be a little more specific so your message lands clearly. So yes, we’ve accepted that we’ve lost the last couple of games, but overall we haven’t accepted defeat in this tournament because we’re not out of it. We’ll go back, assess what we can do, and see how far we can push our way through.”
Wednesday’s match marked MI’s fourth loss at the Wankhede, their usual stronghold, and it again highlighted how hard it is for them to close out games in front of their home support. In the contest, more than 480 runs were scored in total, with MI unable to defend 243 as Sunrisers Hyderabad chased the target successfully.
Pollard refused to shift blame to the pitch despite the heavy scoring. “I’m probably the wrong person to answer whether MI have a say in how the pitch is prepared. I’m not privy to all that information—what can or cannot be said about it,” he said. “And I’m not going to sit here and make statements about it.”
He argued that the Wankhede has consistently hosted high-quality cricket for years, with international matches also played at the venue. “We’ve all been here for years. We’ve done well here for years. We’ve seen international cricket at this ground. Two teams take the field every time, so you just have to be better—and so far the opposition has been better than us,” Pollard said.
Pollard acknowledged the entertainment value of the game, noting the volume of runs. “It was a good game of cricket, with nearly 500 runs scored, so it was great from an entertainment point of view.”
Still, he conceded that MI’s bigger problem this season has been the inability to play a complete match. “In terms of what has gone wrong, I think we haven’t been able to put together a full game of cricket as a team. It hasn’t been as consistent as we would have hoped, and the results are showing that. It’s not something you can ignore or pretend isn’t happening,” Pollard said.
He added that while individuals can try to identify small areas to improve, the overall issue has been collective performance. “You can sit and try to pinpoint every little aspect, but collectively, I think we haven’t been good enough,” Pollard concluded.
