Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene was happy to look at the positives following his side’s narrow loss to Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede on Saturday. The Sri Lankan great credited Dwayne Bravo for his brilliant batting but also backed his players to come good in subsequent games.

Jayawardene heaped praise on young leg-spinner Mayank Markande, whose three-wicket broke CSK’s back and turned the game in MI’s favour. “Mayank is special. He bowled brilliantly. He and Rahul Chahar came good in both our practice games. We know we have to back youngsters. This is the year we have to do that. The stadium was packed and there was pressure but he did very well,” Jayawardene said.

He went on, “I think Mayank’s biggest strength is his accuracy. He is a bit different compared to a normal leggie. He has quite a few variations and he has control over them. He is a very confident boy. His attitude is great. We have always looked to back those kind of guys.”

Jayawardene said he was not surprised with the stunning turn the match took after Bravo went berserk. “I’m not surprised. He’s a batsman who we planned against as well. We knew those guys were going to bat up the order because they played an extra bowler. I thought we bowled really well until those last three overs. We didn’t execute the plans that we wanted to but credit to him, he batted brilliantly. That’s what T20 cricket is. Once you get the rhythm it’s quite hard to stop somebody,” he explained.

“Look, the wicket was sticky. And it was doing a bit early on. We struggled to get a start. I think 165 was a good score. We were in control of the game but for the last three or four overs. One knock took it away from us. Kedar Jadhav got hurt and Bravo took his chances. I’m happy with our team in the sense that we fought back both with the bat and ball. In the last few overs, Chennai played very well,” he added.

Jayawardene insisted that MI needed to move on. “This is the nature of the beast. We take our positives and carry on. To have a game like that up front will motivate the guys to come back stronger. I am happy with our team’s approach and how we went about doing things, how we executed our plans against some of their batsmen. It was a close game. As long as you are in the game, you can’t blame the boys.”

He also spoke of the contribution of Suryakumar Yadav. “Team selection is all about balance. It’s a balancing act. We try to introduce younger guys too. Bravo’s experience helped him keep his nerve. Suryakumar Yadav batted with maturity. And he guided Ishan Kishan. The other guys came and took over after he was out. He played with maturity.”