IPL 2017: Dropped catch of Nitish Rana cost us the game vs Mumbai Indians, says Gujarat Lions assistant coach Mohammad Kaif

Gujarat Lions (GL) suffered the third defeat in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017, against Mumbai Indians (MI), on Sunday evening at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Having played 4 games in the tournament so far, the Suresh Raina-led GL have managed to win just one game losing the rest. Despite having posted 176 runs on the board, Mumbai Indians, riding on impressive knocks by Nitish Rana (53), Kieron Pollard (39) and Rohit Sharma (40*) clinched the game keeping 3 deliveries and 6 wickets intact. GL assistant coach, Mohammad Kaif, opened up after the game about what went wrong for his side despite having enough runs on the board.  LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: Mumbai Indians vs Gujarat Lions – Match 16

Rana, who played the important role in the successful run-chase for MI, went on to score his second fifty in IPL 2017. Rana scored 53 runs off 36 deliveries which consisted of 4 cracking boundaries and 2 big sixes. But Rana was earlier dropped on just 9 runs by Jason Roy. As per PTI, Kaif said, “That catch would have made a lot of difference. Rana is in good form. In IPL or any T20 match, if you get back-to-back wickets, you are going to be on the top. That catch hurt us badly.”

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In addition to this, Kaif also praised Harbhajan Singh who played an instrumental role in holding GL to 176. The veteran off-spinner conceded just 22 runs in his 4 overs getting the wicket of Raina. “We were few runs short, probably 15 runs short. We had a good start, lost one wicket in the power-play. When Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) came to bowl, he bowled very well and gave away nothing,” Kaif said.