We move on. The effort was high but the return wasn’t as expected. But like we always do, a loss is a learning curve to come back stronger in the next game. Head coach Mark Boucher spoke to the media at the post-match press conference, and shared our mixed emotions.

Firstly, the boss was delighted to see Aapla Dada Surya get back his mojo with the bat. “It's always nice for Suryakumar Yadav to get some runs. His form is a funny thing, as sometimes you judge it by the numbers. He's been hitting the ball really well in the nets and it was just a matter of time before he translated that into runs. So, I'm very happy for him,” he said.

“He'll feel very comfortable. For Mumbai Indians, having him in some good form, hitting the ball so sweetly and playing the sort of devastating innings he did tonight, bodes well for the future for us going forward.”

Boucher felt the team were close yet so far in the fixture. “I thought the game was in the balance. I thought we batted really well tonight. Maybe they did get too many runs which is disappointing. Because I think that, overall, if I look at the game, we had control for some percentage of the game, but let it slip towards the end of our bowling.”

On Jofra Archer’s return, our head coach had an optimistic response. “I thought Jof bowled us some good pace. He landed a couple of yorkers. The wicket was good to bat on and thus, we knew it was going to be a tough night for our bowlers. For that, I think for his first outing, we'll take it. Hopefully, he's not feeling any pain tomorrow and he can be up and running and put his name in the selection for the next game. It's always good to see Jof running in at full pace so we're grateful for that.”

A major question posed to the MI coach was Rohit Sharma utilizing Arjun Tendulkar in the middle overs instead of the experienced Piyush Chawla. What was the idea? What was the intended matchup?

“I'm sure you know Rohit Sharma is a very experienced cricketer and probably felt at that particular stage, I think it was the 14th or 15th over that Arjun bowled. He probably felt that there was a bit of a matchup at that stage of the game. That's a decision that he made out there.”

“Sometimes it may go your way and sometimes they don't go. Unfortunately, tonight it didn't go his way. In hindsight, you probably look at PC (Piyush Chawla) and say yeah, you should have bowled these overs, but sometimes the matchups don't work. That's just the nature of T20 cricket. So no issues there. And then, for Arjun, it'll be tough on him coming at the back end and bowling at the Wankhede.”

“As I said, the conditions are good to bat on. He maybe got one or two wrong and they went the full distance. He probably felt like he is under a bit of pressure towards the end. But yeah, he'll live and learn from it. I wouldn't say early days, but it is midway through the IPL and hopefully, he can come back stronger. It's how you get up the next morning to conquer those sorts of mishaps that you have and with the full support of not only the support staff but the team, one can try and get over this as quickly as possible and get back on the horse.”

Mark Boucher’s general idea on player matchups being like for like or a trial and test one? “There's a large percentage that match-ups work. It really is just about feeling on the day and looking at the wicket and picking who you feel is going to be the best bowler to bowl against that batter.”

“To bowl to that batter also making a call according to that batter's mindset, if is he going to play the over well and who's going to be the toughest bowler to take on at that particular stage. So it really is just about the core group of players on the field at that stage who make that call and that is probably the decision that was made tonight. I mean we were in control until the 15th over, until they got 96 runs in the last five overs.”

“We just got it wrong. It's frustrating because I thought we dominated a lot of that game.”

Lastly, Boucher complimented Piyush Chawla’s impact on the team. “He wasn’t given a bit of opportunity previously, but now he seems to be enjoying himself. He's doing very well for us so he's a big weapon for us at the moment.

“Hopefully, he can keep continuing with his form. He bowled really well tonight, as you said three overs, but as I explained there are certain decisions that get made in the field that some are unhappy with. But I think he is in a good space and that’s good enough for us.”

It might be a tough loss to swallow, but we have plenty of positives to take out of this Paltan. The way we fought with the bat was an absolute delight to watch. Now onto Ahmedabad to get back on the winning cart.