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After stumbling to a 54-run loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, Mumbai Indians Director of Cricket' Zaheer Khan said that his side has not been able to play the aggressive brand of cricket they are known for.
Harshal Patel's hat-trick and three-wicket haul by Yuzvendra Chahal helped RCB defend 165 and defeat MI by 54 runs here at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. "Not really, the wicket was just fine. You can make out from how the team batting first went and how we started. It is just the form-based situation for us, the middle order has not really fired for us in these last three games, which has put a lot of pressure. Losing wickets after getting that kind of start is never going to help you recover," said Zaheer during a virtual post-match press conference. Talking about the form of Rahul Chahar with the ball, Zaheer said: "If you are equating it with wickets then you can say that. But I am happy with the way he is bowling. The ball is coming out of his hand absolutely fine. When things are going tough, you are not able to get the rhythm going." Earlier, Maxwell and Virat Kohli scored 56 and 51 as RCB posted 165/6 in the allotted twenty overs. Srikar Bharat also played a knock of 32 runs from 24 balls. "We have not been able to get ourselves going as simple as that. You got to have 40 good overs of cricket to win games. We have been playing well in patches and we have not been able to sustain it," said Zaheer. "That has been the case so far. We have to get things moving really fast, it is going to be a must-win games for us coming up and it is important that the team sticks together. Hunger and determination are going to be really important, the way MI is known for showing aggressive cricket, we have not seen that so far," he added. Mumbai Indians will next square off against Punjab Kings on Tuesday in the ongoing IPL. (ANI)
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