Bond believes MI can stage turnaround

Mumbai Indians suffered their sixth defeat in eight outings on Tuesday that has left their title defence hanging by the thinnest of threads. Bowling coach Shane Bond refused to throw in the towel, instead believing his lads can script a turnaround.

"Disappointment," explained Bond in one word after losing to Royal Challengers Bangalore. "Whenever you lose any game in this tournament there's disappointment. We have lost six now so we are very disappointed in the way we are going. We have six games left that we have to win. Even if we win it might not be in our hands, depending on the other results.

"So we can't think that far down the track. We just have to turn up against Kings XI Punjab in a couple of days and play well. I still believe when you look at our squad we have key players who can win us six games in a row. We have done it in the past, I believe that we can, so we just have to take it one game at a time and, hopefully, we can do that."

Skipper Rohit Sharma batted at No 4 on Tuesday and there's been plenty of calls from fans in Mumbai to promote him back to the opening slot, a position where he has enjoyed considerable success. Bond, however, ruled out any such change in batting order.

"I think if you look at the success of the team, the three titles we have won, he has always been at three or four. Rohit has batted at four in the games that he has won for us. He almost won us two games single-handedly, so there's always a debate about where Rohit should bat. Today he was the one guy who got a beauty of a delivery. He's prepared to bat at what is the best spot for the team and history would suggest that four is the best spot. That's when we have won titles where he has batted."