"Lose Game, Smile, Repeat Nonsense": Did Dale Steyn Tear Into Hardik Pandya Without Naming Him?

Mumbai Indians suffered their 5th defeat in 8 matches as Rajasthan Royals solidified their position at the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 points table on Monday. RR's opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal roared back to form with a terrific hundred after Sandeep Sharma's maiden five-for as a Hardik Pandya's side took another step towards elimination from the T20 league. Despite the defeat, Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya refused to dig into the problems that exist in team, especially his own form. After the conclusion of the match South Africa legend Dale Steyn seemed to have taken a thinly veiled dig at Hardik, though the retired pacer refused to name the MI skipper.

Hardik has been one of the most talked-about cricketers in the IPL since the start of the tournament. His poor form, both with the bat and the ball, is one of the reasons behind MI's underwhelming performance in the IPL. Against Rajasthan, Hardik was poor in the field too, letting down his bowlers.

Steyn, who played for multiple franchises in the IPL, wasn't happy seeing words like 'trusting the process', 'sticking to basics' being used. Seeing the MI skipper opt for a 'safe' approach in the post-match presentation ceremony, Steyn seems to have shared a fiery post on X (formerly Twitter).

"I really look forward to the day players might say what's honestly on their mind. Instead, we some how dumbed ourselves and our minds into saying the usual safe thing, lose the next game, smile and then repeat that nonsense again," he posted.

After the game, Hardik blamed the team's finishing as the reason behind the defeat, saying MI were about 10-15 runs short against RR.

"We put ourselves in trouble early on. The way Tilak and Nehal batted - that was fantastic. I don't think that when we lost a couple of wickets early we thought we would even reach 180. We didn't finish well and that's why we were 10-15 runs short. We had to keep it within the stumps (while bowling). Early on in the powerplay, we gave a lot of width and I don't think it was our best day in the field as well.

"Overall, we did not put the right foot on the park and eventually they outplayed us. After the game, it's not the right time to go to the players, everyone is professional, they know their roles. What we can do is learn from this game and the mistakes which we have made, rectify it and make sure that we don't make it. Progression is very important.

"Within the team, individually, we will have to accept our flaws and maybe work on those. I don't believe much in chip and chop, I like to back players and the focus would always be to play good cricket, sticking to our plans and making sure that we don't make the basic errors. Cricket is simple, as long as we keep it simple, it's nice," he said.

As for the match, pacer Sandeep Sharma bagged the player of the match award for his figures of 4-0-18-5 to record the best bowling figures this IPL. Jaiswal, on the other hand, soared back to formin Rajasthan's final home game, thrashing the Mumbai Indians bowlers during his 104 not out off 60 balls.

Despite a rain intervention delaying the proceedings, Rajasthan found little troubles in overhauling a 180-run target set by Mumbai Indians, reaching 183/1 in 18.4 overs.