Mumbai lose 5 out of 5 this season after Dhawan became the best batter against MI

Things have gone completely south for the most successful franchise in the IPL. The five-time title winners have suffered five losses out of the five they played this season.

Powerplay bashers

Throughout this season, Punjab have been the most exciting batting unit. From the word go, their batsmen have been destructive in the powerplay overs. In this season, only against the bowling unit of Gujarat Titans (43/2), they scored less than 60 runs in the first six overs.

In their match against Mumbai, Punjab openers Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal, scored 65 runs in the first six without being separated, which is their second best first six overs against Mumbai in the IPL. In this season, out of the top five highest scores in the powerplay, three are occupied by Punjab.

The highest run scorer against Mumbai

The start of the season for Dhawan hasn’t been a great one. In his four innings prior to the match against Mumbai, Dhawan had starts, but never converted those to big knocks.

However, in his fifth innings of the season, he made it count by scoring a 50-ball 70 runs. He was involved in a 97-run opening partnership with the skipper Mayank. En route his innings of 70, Dhawan surpassed Suresh Raina’s record of 824 runs against Mumbai, to become the best batter against one of the best IPL franchises.

In addition to that record, he embarked on another when he reached his half-century. In the IPL, Dhawan registered his 47th score of 50 or more, which is the joint second best by a batsman and the joint best by an Indian batsman. Virat Kohli is the other batter tied alongside Dhawan.

Rohit breaches the 10k mark

The Mumbai skipper, Rohit Sharma isn’t having a great time with the bat. Despite his poor run, the right-handed opener registered a significant milestone in his match against Punjab.

Just before getting dismissed to Kagiso Rabada in the fourth over, Rohit hit a six over covers to reach 10000 runs in T20s. By doing so, he became the second Indian batter after Kohli (10379) to hit 10k runs in T20s. Also, with his first boundary, Rohit became the fifth batsman in the IPL to hit 500 fours in the league. Dhawan leads the list of most fours hit by a batsman with 673 fours.

A drought of 50+ score

Throughout this season, Rohit has scored 108 runs in five innings at an average of 21.6 and a strike rate of 133.3. His highest score in this season, 41 came in the first match against Delhi Capitals.

Since the start of the second leg, Rohit hasn’t registered a 50+ score in the IPL. His last IPL 50+ score came against Punjab in the Indian leg of the 2021 IPL. Post that innings, Rohit has had a barren streak of 13 innings without a 50+ score. In the IPL, for Mumbai, only once has he suffered a longer streak of 50+ scoreless innings. From May 1st 2018 till 20th April 2019, Rohit had batted 16 innings without one.

Dewald Brevis, a young beast

In his first IPL appearance, Dewald Brevis showed a glimpse of his power-hitting. After having a sensational U-19 World Cup stint in January, the youngster put on a show in his innings against Punjab.

In his first balls, he had scored only eight runs, then in his next 15 balls, he clubbed 41 runs at a strike rate of 273.3. This also includes 28 runs of one over against Rahul Chahar and a 112 meter six, the biggest so far of the tournament. His innings included four boundaries and five sixes. The five sixes are the joint most sixes hit in an innings by a Mumbai batsman in a score of 49 or less in the IPL.

The youngest pair to forge a 50+ stand

Chasing a big target of 199, Mumbai’s experienced pair of Ishan Kishan and Rohit failed to provide a start. But, the youngsters in Tilak Varma and Brevis didn’t give up on the hopes of chasing the target down.

The pair hoisted an 84-run partnership for the third wicket. The cumulative age of the two batsmen, Brevis (18 years and 349 days) and Tilak (19 years and 156 days) when they registered the 50+ partnership was 38 years and 140 days. By virtue of it, the pair became the youngest to register a 50+ stand in the IPL. Previously, Abhishek Sharma (20 years and 28 days) and Priyam Garg (19 years and 307 days) of Sunrisers Hyderabad had an aggregate age of 39 years and 335 days in 2020 when they hoisted a 50+ stand against Chennai Super Kings.

Mumbai slump further

Chennai, till their previous match against Royal Challengers Bangalore were in company of Mumbai with four losses in four. However, they got off the mark with a win.

But, for Mumbai, the fate hasn’t changed. They registered their fifth consecutive loss of the season and are yet to win a match, the only team to suffer this fate in IPL 2022. This is not the first time that the champion team has suffered this kind of start. In 2014, they had lost their first five matches and went on to qualify for the eliminator. Deccan Chargers in 2012, Delhi Capitals (Daredevils then) in 2014 and Bangalore in 2019 had also lost their first five matches of a season.