On a night when even Jasprit Bumrah “probably missed the length by a little bit,” Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene acknowledged that his team was thrown off course by a fierce assault from Rajasthan Royals openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
In a rain-shortened IPL match on Tuesday, Mumbai Indians lost by 27 runs as Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi lit up the evening with a brilliant performance that propelled Rajasthan Royals to 150 for 3 in 11 overs before their bowlers tightened the screws to limit Mumbai Indians to 123 for 9.
After defeating the Kolkata Knight Riders to start the season, this was MI’s second defeat.
“We were not good enough, and that’s what we have to work on. I think we had some plans, but…we never executed those plans the way we wanted. These guys are batting really well. We knew the danger, especially when rain curtailed (the match), and you have the license to go up front.
“We needed to make sure that first four, five overs were crucial for us. And, yeah, I think we missed our lengths, we missed our lines, and they played really, really well,” PTI quoted the former Sri Lanka captain as saying.
He continued by saying that even a bowler of Bumrah’s caliber had to battle the assault of the two RR openers, who combined for a scorching 80 runs in the first five overs, with Sooryavanshi scoring 39 off 14 balls and Jaiswal scoring an undefeated 77 off 32 balls.
“I think we all knew his (Sooryavanshi’s) great talent from the way he went about last year. We managed to control him last season. And every match, it’s a challenge. Bumrah probably missed the length by a little bit, and he was ready for this. So, yeah, it’ll be fascinating to see how he evolves. But definitely, you know, he really took our bowlers down,” added Jayawardene.
But Jaiswal’s batting accounted for a large portion of RR’s score, and Jayawardene claimed that the batter was the one who really won the match.
“Don’t forget that Jaiswal was the key… the way he batted. The first three overs, he took it on. He played some really good cricketing shots, and he batted through the innings for them.”
Despite their capability, Jayawardene admitted his team was unable to form a winning partnership because they lost early wickets.
“We just needed a couple of partnerships. We lost a few early wickets, and we lost momentum. If you look at the end, it was four sixes was the difference, so it was four hits for us, and we just couldn’t find that, and that’s without us getting into a rhythm, and maybe one or two batsmen really getting a quick 30 or a 40 in that top. So, we never thought that it was out of our reach.”
The team will need to reorganize, make changes, and decide on their next course of action, he said.
“We just have to sit down and see where we need to improve. I mean, we know what we need to do, but going out there and having that belief, confidence, the guys getting together, doing that. We have to regroup and work hard on what we need to do.”
