IPL 2026 – KKR vs MI – Paras Mhambrey won’t throw Deepak Chahar ‘under the train’ for catching mishaps

Mumbai Indians (MI) were knocked out of the race for the IPL 2026 playoffs on May 8. With four of their 14 league-stage matches still to play and be around the IPL for three more weeks, it can’t be easy, dragging yourself out to fields in various parts of the country with nothing to gain. But to Paras Mhambrey, the MI assistant coach, “playing quality 40 overs of cricket” each time remains motivation enough for the players and the coaching staff.

“Our preparation is simple: look at winning the games. That’s what we’ve been doing,” Mhambrey said after MI lost to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Wednesday, their ninth loss in 13 games this season. “The focus on this game, as well as earlier games, is winning. And we want to look back and say: how do you work around constructing a team, what are the things that we need to learn from this game and take it to the next game, which allows us to win a game?

“I know, with the way things have balanced out, a win [against KKR] would have set the cat amongst the pigeons. I know that. But we can only control what we can control. And what we can control is going out there and playing quality 40 overs of cricket and winning the game and leave the results or the positions in the table for someone else to look into.”

Few things have gone right for MI this season, and one of the things that hasn’t – catching – was under the microscope again on Wednesday. And the unfortunate Deepak Chahar was in the thick of things on both occasions.

The first instance was in the tenth over of KKR’s chase. Rovman Powell top-edged a pull and sent it deep. Chahar, from deep fine-leg, and Robin Minz, from deep square-leg, converged on the ball. Chahar was in the better position, and Minz appeared to pull out of the race a couple of seconds before the ball came down, but Chahar stopped in his tracks, hands still cupped, and the ball landed between them.

Cut to the 18th over, and Chahar was at it again. This time, a scoop from Tejasvi Dahiya went to where short fine-leg would be. Ryan Rickelton, from behind the stumps, hared off after it, and Chahar came in from deep fine-leg. There was clearly no calling, but Rickelton didn’t take his eyes off the ball and narrowly missed colliding with Chahar and held on, even as Chahar jammed his left knee in the ground and looked sheepish.

“No one does it on purpose. You drop catches. It just happens, part of the game,” Mhambrey said. “Not something that we’re going to dwell too much on, honestly. Yes, if you look at it in hindsight and say, ‘okay, fine, that catch [Powell] at that stage would have been 15, 20 runs extra’, yeah. But I’m not going to blame anyone out here. If you look at Corbin [Bosch], he took a brilliant catch [at point, to send back Powell off AM Ghazanfar]. So you compensate it for that, right?”

To be fair, MI haven’t been the worst offenders on that count, not nearly. ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data says MI have dropped 14 catches this season. Punjab Kings (PBKS) are on top with 19, followed by two teams on 18, two teams on 17, and one on 15. In fact, MI have been the fourth-most-efficient team of the ten when it comes to catching.

Elaborating on what he felt Chahar’s mindset would have been when going for the catch off Dahiya, Mhambrey said, “There are too many things happening. Look at Deepak or anybody, I’m just saying you think about the game, right? You think about what how I can make a difference in maybe one over that’s left. So you constantly think [about contributing] and that can happen. You know, it’s not the first time that has happened and I’m sure it’s going to happen again. I would [not] blame, put Deepak under the train out here, definitely not.”

Now it’s back to Mumbai, and to the Wankhede Stadium, to finish the season with a fixture against Rajasthan Royals (RR). “You need to find a way to win. It’s like a home game for us. So we know the surface as well,” Mhambrey said. “But yeah, that’s nothing beyond that for us. And yeah, and it’s an afternoon game. So it’s completely different for both the teams.”

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