IPL 2023: This is my ninth season, so it’s getting frustrating – Shane Bond on MI’s inability to win opening game in tournament

Mumbai Indians haven’t been good starters in the last few seasons and bowling coach Shane Bond feels it is getting frustrating. MI lost their opening match of IPL 2023 against RCB and they were beaten convincingly by eight wickets and 22 balls to spare.

In fact, RCB has won five of its last six matches against MI. Furthermore, this loss was Mumbai’s 11th consecutive defeat in their opening match of an IPL season.

Momentum is the main currency of the T20 format and MI has failed to start off well. Thus, it will be imperative for them to get the winning impetus on their side as soon as possible in the baby stages of the tournament and then build on it.

MI could only manage 171 runs on the board as their batters failed to come up with a collective show against RCB on Sunday. The visitors were pegged on the back foot in the first 10 overs and though Tilak Varma scored a gutsy knock of 84 runs to help his team go past the 170-run mark, it was still not enough to challenge the home team.

Shane Bond said in the press conference, “This is my ninth season and we haven’t won our opening game. So it’s getting frustrating. At the end of the day, it’s a tough competition. It’s always better to have more wins than losses. It’s a tough way to start.”

The former New Zealand gun pacer also shared his delight with the return of home and away fixtures in the ongoing season.

“It was great to be back out on Chinnaswamy. With that atmosphere, we are just back into the traditional IPL. I think everyone missed it. Now we’ve got a few new players. They would have found it pretty intimidating but it’s much better for the experience.

“I think everyone’s just excited to be back into the traditional IPL. Even for me, standing out in the middle today, feeling that energy from the crowd and the noise was quite special.”

On the other hand, RCB got off to a flying start as Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis hit the straps to add 148 runs for the opening alliance. However, Bond admitted their bowlers offered too much width in the bowling innings.

“With Virat, you just don’t want to pitch the ball too full. He’s so good when the ball is up in his eyes and full. He got us. With Faf, we knew he would use his feet. We wanted to try and use the yorker and probably didn’t use it enough. We offered too much width at the start of our innings. We got hit to both sides of the pitch and couldn’t really create any pressure.

“We never strung two overs together where we felt like the game was squeezing. That was obviously a little bit to do with our bowling, but they played brilliantly.”

Mumbai Indians will next take on Chennai Super Kings on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.