Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma felt a "slightly better bowling performance" could have eased some tension in a must-win game where they had to chase 175 on a difficult pitch at the Ferozshah Kotla. The defending champions fell 11 short against Delhi Daredevils to crash out of the tournament with six wins and eight losses.
The chase was alive until Ben Cutting was dismissed for a 20-ball 37, with Mumbai needing 12 off four balls with one wicket in hand. They were eventually bowled out when Jasprit Bumrah was caught first ball.
"Certain areas in our bowling, if we'd done well, could've restricted them to 10-15 less," Rohit said after the match. "Looking at how Ben [Cutting] was batting, if one batter stayed till the end, you never know what could've happened.
"There are a lot of things we can look back and say we didn't do right. We played good cricket in the second half, but things like that can happen. We can get a lot of learning out of it."
Rohit credited the Daredevils bowling for bouncing back after opener Evin Lewis set Mumbai up with a blistering 31-ball 48. Then they lost Lewis, Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya in the space of five deliveries and Rohit underlined that as the defining phase of the game.
"Hats off to Delhi. They played good cricket and bowled in the right areas, we knew chasing will always be tough, considering how the wicket was playing, but taking the excuse away from it, we played bad cricket as well," Rohit said. "We have to say we were not there today."
Rohit dismissed a suggestion that the Mumbai had been under pressure because they won only two games in the first half of the season. "I have no regrets how the season has gone, it was a mixed season for us," he said. "Everyone is fighting hard to get the playoffs, so we knew it won't be easy. We've been in this situation many times before, can't say it took a toll on anyone's body. We played bad cricket, but we will accept this and have to move forward."