When Hardik Pandya stays undefeated in a run chase and Suryakumar Yadav gets a half-century, the Mumbai Indians rarely experience defeat. After losing to the Lucknow Super Giants by 12 runs, their head coach Mahela Jayawardene is correct to urge his team to be a little more “ruthless” with the bat and the ball.
“I think it’s early season so we need to be a bit more ruthless when we’re in those kinds of situations to try and finish a game off,” Jayawardene said. “I think halfway point, even at the 14th over mark, I think we were in it, 12 balls, 14 balls out, we were par score with them… we had the game in control most of the time even after losing those two early wickets but it was just disappointing that we just couldn’t finish it.”
Jayawardene called the defeat a “setback,” particularly considering that MI, who had a sluggish start to the season, had beaten the Kolkata Knight Riders at Wankhede in their last game.
“I have to be honest, it is a setback,” Jayawardene said. “We probably made quite a few mistakes especially with the ball as well, we should have probably restricted them maybe 15-20 runs less and at the same time batting-wise we had the momentum even after losing early wickets. I put it down to us not being smart enough in certain situations and not being able to execute what needed to be executed. So we just need to go back. We had three away games, one home game so we’d love to win away matches but now it’s up to us to really get our points on the board and then push through.”
After choosing to field first, MI gave up the second-highest powerplay score of 69/0 at the always slow venue. Jayawardene mentioned how MI captain Pandya modified his bowling to fit the pitch after taking five wickets.
“With the experience that he has, he realised that this [bowling slow and back of length] is what he probably needs to do because we did leak too many runs in the powerplay. We just needed to take a bit of pace off, which we should have done in the powerplay as well. I think that’s why these guys are experienced, they adapt to conditions pretty well, see what the opportunities present, and he definitely with the ball pulled the game back for us and gave us a pretty decent chance of chasing this total,” Jayawardene said.
MI has lost 14 of their 19 away games since 2023. This season, they have dropped their last three away games. Is their road form a cause for concern?
“I think the first two games we did not have the rhythm, I think in Chennai and GT we got a bit outplayed but here I think we’re back at what we’re doing best,” the head coach of MI stated. “Obviously, batting must execute and complete a game, and I believe our bowling needs some fine-tuning.
It goes without saying that traveling has hurdles, and successful teams strive to win away from home. Furthermore, it is most likely written for us to ensure that we play quality cricket at home and win those games. The event is still open because all of the teams are beating one another. We have a chance to try and salvage some points from it because we have some challenging, good games coming up against clubs that are higher in the table than us.”
MI will host three of their next four games, beginning with the much awaited matchup with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. After playing the Delhi Capitals up north, they return to Wankhede to welcome the Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad in back-to-back games.
