Mumbai: Emerging out with best figures in his 15-match Indian Premier League (IPL) career with 4-21 in his four over spell, Mumbai Indians all-rounder Mitchell McCleneghan’s effort against Gujarat Lions Saturday night ended up in a losing cause.
While dishing out abundant variations, the 29-year-old continued his promising start to the tournament. After the defeat playing at home, McClenaghan was thoroughly disappointed with his side’s performance pointing out little mistakes by players can turn the game around.
I’m really disappointed. We made a few little mistakes. We tried ourselves to be clinical, but this is something we will definitely be disappointed with,” McClenaghan said, here during the post-match conference.
The Kiwi said Mumbai Indians had done their spadework before entering the match but couldn’t stop Aaron Finch, who now has recorded his third half-century on the trot in the tournament.
According to sources, the Aussie opener, suffering from cramps and a hamstring injury is recovering well and will be fit for Gujarat Lions’ next game in Rajkot against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 21.
We did some scanning work with Bondy (Shane Bond), Ricky (Ricky Ponting) and Rohit (Rohit Sharma) last couple of days. I think there's credit to how we shut down his (Finch) scoring zones predominantly, just a shame that we couldn’t get him out. He played a very mature knock and showed the class of the player that he is, exceptionally good getting the team across the line,” he added.
Quizzed if the top-order collapse made the difference in the end, McClenaghan chose not to engage in blame game, rather shed light on his own slip-ups.
You can’t point out, it’s a game of cricket, it does happen. It’s got to be a collective effort to win. You can’t put the blame on just one area. Personally, I can pin- point out 4 leg byes and 12 runs from my second and last over. Every single person made a few mistakes and if you are going to win close games against world class players, you can’t afford to do that,” McClenaghan asserted.
We have a lot of purpose and give a lot of inch of detail when we play. We know what we want to go out and execute. We have got great plans from our management staff. At the end of the day it comes down to how we execute our skills and performing to the best of our ability. In tight games like today, the smallest things can turn a game,” his sentiments echoed loud and clear.
Replying to a query whether he relies on shorter deliveries for wickets, he said, “You can’t just rely on one skill, so I try on work on everything during training until I am clinical about yorkers, slower balls, bumpers, cutters everything. So it’s just working hard day in and day out and trying to improve on the things you are not as good.”
