Former South African Cricketer Mark Boucher. File
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

Following India’s 61-run win over South Africa in the 1st T20I, former cricketer Mark Boucher reflected on Men in Blue spinner Varun Chakravarthy’s performance in the game and said that he bowled briskly. Varun Chakaravarthy picked up three wickets and gave 25 runs in his four-over and helped the Men in Blue to defend the given target. Speaking on Jio Cinema, Boucher said that both Varun and Ravi Bishnoi had a great bowling partnership in the second inning.

“Varun Chakravarthy has come on leaps and bounds. The way that he bowled tonight with Bishnoi, what a great partnership that the two of them had in the middle of there. Klaasen looked out of sync, to be honest, he didn’t look like he was in good form at all,” Boucher said.

The former Proteas cricketer added that the Indian bowling attack made it look like men against boys.

“They were never really in with a shout, always looked like something that gonna happen, something that was gonna give. I think they bowled nine balls for three runs at some stage to build up pressure. They really made it almost look like men against boys to be fair,” he added.

Recapping the match, Aiden Markram-led South Africa sent India to bat first after the toss.

Sanju Samson’s blitz helped India to a fiery start in the game. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav (21 runs from 17 balls, 2 fours and 1 six) and batter Tilak Varma (33 runs from 18 balls, 3 fours and 2 balls) also played an average knock and propelled India to 202/8 in the first inning.

Gerald Coetzee led the South Africa bowling attack after he picked up three wickets for 37 runs in his four-over spell.

During the run chase, South Africa’s batters failed to put up a decent performance. No Proteas batters could cross the 30-run mark.

Heinrich Klaasen (25 runs from 22 balls, 2 fours and 1 six) and Gerald Coetzee (23 runs from 11 balls, 3 sixes) were the highest run scorers for the hosts.

The Indian bowling attack was led by Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi who bundled out the hosts at 141 with two overs remaining. Both Varun and Bishnoi picked up three wickets in the game.

Samson was named the Player of the Match following his stellar show with the bat.

India will take on South Africa in the second T20I match of the series on Sunday in Gqeberha.

After finishing their disastrous campaign at the bottom of the points table, Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher acknowledged the team’s difficulties while emphasising the need for patience and careful consideration before making changes. After losing to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 18 runs, Mumbai’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season came to an abrupt end, finishing last in the IPL standings. Boucher addressed Hardik Pandya’s captaincy and batting struggles and acknowledged the all-rounder’s leadership potential.

The MI head coach believes Pandya will learn from this experience and emerge a stronger leader.

Hardik had one of his worst seasons with both bat and ball and his captaincy also received criticism in the end.

“Even Hardik would’ve been disappointed with his performance. From a captain’s perspective, he had some excellent games,” Boucher said in a post-match press conference.

Boucher believes Pandya will grow as a leader and gain knowledge from this experience.

“There’s a lot of stuff going around him that clouds his thoughts now and again, which is also challenging for him as a leader. He certainly had a lot of support within our dressing room, and guys are trying to help him out, but it is tricky to go through as a player. It is what it is, and it will undoubtedly be a learning curve for him with his leadership growth. While times are tough now, some things will pass, and he’ll be a tougher leader. So, some fantastic things are coming for Hardik Pandya as a leader,” he added.

“He came into the season with little cricket behind him, so it would always be reasonably tough on him. We understood that as well. His bowling got a lot better as the season went along. Unfortunately, he didn’t fire with the bat this season. He showed glimpses of what he can do,” the MI head coach said.

Regarding Pandya’s captaincy and his own future, Boucher stayed tight-lipped but underlined that important decisions should always be made after a cool-headed assessment.

“With regards to my stuff, I’m not too sure where I’m going, to be honest. As I said, it’s early days at the moment. A lot of people are emotional. There’s probably going to be discussions about all of us. I don’t think there’s only one person. We’re in a high-performance zone, and when you underperform, you need to get looked at,” he added.

“So, the only thing I can do as a coach is give my best, precisely what I’ve done. I’ve got no regrets about what I’ve done here. Could I have done things better? We’ll sit down and evaluate that, as we do with all the players as well,” he stated.

Concerns have been raised by MI’s subpar performance over the last three years and Boucher agreed that a comprehensive analysis was necessary on the five-time IPL champions’ form.

“Yeah, it’s disappointing. After our auction, we identified our bowlers as something we wanted to strengthen, and we felt that we did that. At the beginning of the season, losing two players wasn’t great for us, but we still had some great options. So yeah, on paper, I thought we’d do much better than we’ve done. We just haven’t managed to combine our batting and bowling in one single match. One has always let the other down, which is unfortunate,” Boucher said.

“This is a cause for concern, and it is certainly something that we need to address as a franchise. I’m sure we will. Mumbai Indians is a very successful franchise for a reason. When you see trends like that, then you sit down, and you evaluate every season. You do a review, and if there are trends that are happening each year, then you do have to sit down and make some changes and make some big calls, which I know for a fact that we’re okay with doing,” said the MI coach.

In just 14 IPL 2024 matches, Hardik amassed 216 runs, including a 46-run maximum. The all-rounder’s season began to fall apart quite early on, with an average of just 18 and a strike rate of 143.05.

Despite taking 11 wickets with the ball throughout the season, his economy rate was 10.75 and his average was 35.18.

After finishing the IPL 2024 season at the bottom of the points table, Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher looked back and spoke his heart on a number of challenges the team faced over the last two months. After losing to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Mumbai’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season came to an abrupt end, finishing last in the IPL standings. As MI’s disastrous season ended in the IPL 2024, Boucher was asked about the future of former skipper Rohit Sharma with the team and the head coach said that the opener is a master of his own destiny.

In MI’s last match of the season, opener Rohit showed the erratic nature of T20I by going through a slump after a bright start to the season.

“For me, he is a master of his own destiny. It’s a big auction next season who knows what’s going to happen?” Boucher said in a post-match press conference.

Talking about the former MI skipper’s performance, Boucher said it was a season of two halves for the opener as he had a strong start to the season and hammered the ball well into the netting. The head coach also said that Rohit was headed in the right direction so that we could run some excellent races.

“I had a discussion with Rohit Sharma last night. We reviewed the season this year. After that, I asked him what’s next? and Rohit said ‘the World Cup'”, he added.

In the Indian Premier League on Friday, Rohit broke a run of poor scores when he struck an incredible 68 off 38 deliveries in the Mumbai match against LSG.

“It’s almost a season of two halves for him. He started the season well and hit the ball sweetly in the nets. He got a superb 100 against CSK as well. So we honestly thought he was on a great path for us to go out there and get some good runs,” Boucher said.

In a season beset by controversy for the MI, Rohit’s batting performance was as inconsistent. Rohit’s fortunes collapsed after he made a promising start to the season with the bat, which featured a century against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) but in his next six appearances, the opener was dismissed on four single-digit scores.

“Unfortunately, it’s just the nature of T20 as well. He went out there trying to be aggressive, the new way of playing as an opening batter. He got a few low scores, which unfortunately didn’t help us in that particular situation either. But tonight, he finished off with a fantastic knock as well. So yeah, it is a season of two halves for him,” he added.

MI fans had mixed emotions on a bittersweet evening at the Wankhede Stadium. While they were thrilled with Rohit’s explosive fifty but also witnessed their team suffer their tenth loss of the year and drop to the bottom of the points table.

Coming to the match, Rohit and Naman Dhir’s fiery knocks went in vain as MI conceded an 18-run loss against LSG in the IPL 2024 match at the Wankhede Stadium.

After winning the toss MI sent LSG to bat first but that did not go in their favour as KL Rahul (55 runs from 41 balls, 3 fours and 3 sixes) and Nicholas Pooran (75 runs from 29 balls, 5 fours and 8 sixes) played a fiery knock in the first inning. Marcus Stoinis (28 runs from 22 balls, 5 fours) and Ayush Badoni (22* runs from 10 balls, 1 four and 2 sixes) were the other standout batters for LSG as they propelled the visitors to 214/6.

In the run chase, the hosts had a stupendous start while chasing a 215-run target but after the end of the fourth over, rain played a spoilsport for which the game was halted for a few minutes. However, that did not break the MI openers’ momentum as Rohit Sharma (68 runs from 38 balls, 10 fours and 3 sixes) and Dewald Brevis (23 runs from 20 balls, 1 four and 2 sixes) played a partnership of 88 runs.

Naman Dhir’s (62* runs from 28 balls, 4 fours and 5 sixes) stunning knock in the later half of the run chase shed a ray of hope on the MI dugout as they thought the hosts could win the match but he failed to clinch a win in the end and conceded a 18-run loss.