Mumbai Indians

After three hours of rain and a wet outfield, and when we finally had action, it just didn’t go to plan. All in all, it was an evening to forget and quickly move on from in Guwahati. Mumbai Indians Head Coach, Mahela Jayawardene, echoed similar sentiments in the post-match press conference after a 27-run defeat in a curtailed 11-overs-a-side game to the Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday (April 8).

“We had some plans but we didn’t execute those plans the way we wanted,” he said. “The margins are very small, these guys are batting really well and we knew the dangers especially in a rain curtailed game where they had the license to go upfront. The first four-five overs were crucial for us. I thought we bowled very well to get back from the start they had. We missed our lengths, lines and they played really, really well.”

The Royals’ openers, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi, were unstoppable on the right, finding their rhythm right from the start and putting on an 80-run stand in just five overs. But MI’s bowlers did really well in the second of their innings to pull things back and keep RR to 150. Mahela insisted it was a chasable score.

“If a team batting first gets a score, we can get that as well. We had the capability and the batters to do it. We just lost the momentum and didn’t have partnerships. If you look at the end, it was four sixes that was the difference. We just couldn’t find that, and it was without us getting into rhythm. It was without a batsman getting that 30 of 40 at the top. We never thought it was out of our reach. It was about us getting a  good or a couple of partnerships going deeper…but they played a really, really good game today. We were not good enough and that is what we have to work on,” he said.

After the emphatic chase at the Wankhede against the Kolkata Knight Riders to pull off a record chase and end a 14-year drought of not having won the first league game, Mumbai Indians have had a couple of tough losses in their last two games. There’s a long way to go though, and this is no time to sound panic bells. Jayawardene too wasn’t too perturbed, stressing on going back to the drawing board and regrouping ahead of the team coming back home for a delicious high-octane clash against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Sunday (April 12).

“In a tournament like this, every match is important. We had a good start, a couple of losses on the board and we need to sit out and see where we have to improve. We know what we need to do but it’s about going out there and having that belief and confidence. We can say it is early in the season, but we have to regroup and work hard on what we need to do.”