Mumbai Indians' struggles continued as they suffered a disappointing four-wicket defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday. Their batting collapse in the powerplay and a slow middle-order performance proved costly, allowing KKR to comfortably chase down the target in 18.5 overs. 

Mumbai, who were asked to bat, lacked momentum in their innings from the very start after being reduced to 46/4 at the end of the powerplay. Captain Hardik Pandya, who returned to lead the side, admitted after the match that the poor start and inability to stitch together partnerships were major reasons behind Mumbai’s poor total of 147. Hardik and Tilak Varma tried to rescue the innings, but their cautious approach slowed Mumbai down considerably. Pandya scored 26 runs off 27 deliveries, while Tilak managed 20 from 32 balls.

"Definitely as a batting group, we were 20 short. I think we lost a lot of wickets in powerplay, but if Tilak or I would have stayed longer and if we would have stitched a couple of more partnerships and those 15-20 runs, I think we would have had a decent chance," Hardik said at the post-match presentation.

Talking about the slow surface at Eden Gardens, Hardik felt that batters are getting more help than bowlers nowadays.

"I don't mind playing on this sort of wickets where bowlers have something to do. I think IPL is becoming quite batting dominant; bowlers are feeling helpless. I think today's game gave bowlers a lot of something from wicket which makes them come and bowl some good balls, make batsmen play some good cricket and score runs. So, yeah, I kind of enjoyed it."

MI were also not upto the standards in the field, dropping two catches that gave KKR batters an edge to come out on top.

"I don't know. I think, we, throughout the season, we've been, quite poor in fielding. We have dropped a lot of catches, which obviously no one wants to do it, but, in that part of the game, I think, there is no hiding away. If you get chances, if you want to win games, you need to grab all the chances, even half-chances as well. But yeah, when you drop chances which can change the game, it's always you're chasing the game."