Mumbai Indians (MI) bowling coach Shane Bond has expressed frustration over the franchise’s trend of losing the opening IPL match season after season.

The five-time champions suffered a crushing eight-wicket defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL 2023 opener on Sunday (April 2).

It was their 11th consecutive defeat in the season opener. The last time MI won their opening game was way back in 2012, when they defeated Chennai Super Kings.

"This is my ninth season and we haven't won our opening game. So it's getting frustrating. At the end of the day, it's a tough competition. It's always better to have more wins than losses. It's a tough way to start," Bond said at the post-match press conference.

Bond hailed RCB pacer Mohammed Siraj, who bowled a stunning spell with the new ball, conceding just five runs while claiming Ishan Kishan's wicket.

"Siraj was too good today. First three overs from Siraj, he didn't gave away any width. He used his bouncers beautifully. He gave us nothing to hit, forced us to play some shots and got wickets from it.

"We were 29 for 1 in the powerplay on a good wicket, small ground. We have a long batting order, we tried to up the ante and got to 170. That opening spell was brilliant," he stated.

Asked to bat first, Mumbai Indians rode on Tilak Varma’s unbeaten 84 off 46 balls to post 171/7 on the board.

In reply, RCB openers Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis took the MI attack to the cleaners, adding 148 runs for the first wicket. While the RCB captain was dismissed for 74 off 43 balls in the 15th over, Kohli stayed unbeaten on 82 off 49 balls to take the hosts over the finishing line with 22 deliveries to spare.

"Tilak played brilliantly, but he didn't get much help. I think 170 on a really small ground was not a good total. I think 190 could have been a par total," said Bond.

"We didn't bowl well. We knew how important the opening partnership is going to be. We couldn't break it and failed to apply pressure even," he added.

(With PTI Inputs)