2 min readApr 16, 2026 11:25 PM IST
Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya cut a frustrated figure after they were thumped by Punjab Kings by 7 wickets at the Wankhede on Thursday. The 32-year-old said that they needed to go back to the drawing board and see if they’ll need to take some difficult calls or continue in the same vein and hope for a turnaround.
“To be very honest, I don’t have much to say right now. I think we really need to go back on the drawing board and see where are we lacking. Is it individuals? Is it as a group? Is it as planning? We’ll just figure it out and see what we can do next. I think we need to give credit to them as well. The ball started reversing. In the second inning the dew came and it slightly got better but having said that, they just outbeat us. They bowled better, they batted better, they fielded better definitely,” Pandya said after the match.
“I think we need to see, do we need to make some difficult calls or do we need to keep continuing and hope that we’ll turn things around. These are some harsh questions which eventually we need to answer and yeah, ownership has to be taken,” he added.
In the match, Quinton de Kock’s fine hundred went in vain as Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas Iyer blasted blistering fifties to steer Punjab Kings to a seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians.
Sent in to bat, De Kock blasted a scintillating unbeaten 60-ball 112 to power Mumbai Indians to 195 for six.
De Kock forged a 122-run alliance off 68 balls with Naman Dhir (50) and then added another 41 off 23 with skipper Hardik Pandya (14).
Arshdeep Singh (3/22) claimed three wickets, while Shashank Singh (1/19) took one.
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Chasing the total, Prabhsimran (80 not out off 39 balls) and skipper Iyer (66 off 35 balls) shared a match-winning 139-run stand off 67 balls for the third wicket as Punjab overhauled the target in 16.3 overs. AM Ghazanfar (2/31) picked up two wickets.
