KKR vs MI: Mumbai Indians not ruthless enough to close games off, says head coach Mahela Jayawardene
India Today
KKR vs MI, IPL 2022: Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene took some positives despite their third successive defeat, but he has now called on his players to be more ruthless in winning positions.
Mumbai Indians, 5-time IPL champions, have got off to a disastrous start in IPL 2022. They have lost all their three matches and so far and the defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday would have hurt them the most. It was an open match until Pat Cummins exploded in the 16th over to finish with the joint-fastest IPL fifty, taking KKR to a sensational victory.
Chasing 162, KKR were in trouble after losing Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Sam Billings and Andre Russell with still plenty to get. However, Pat Cummins joined forces with Venkatesh Iyer to deny MI victory.
MI have dominated KKR over the years in head-to-head encounters in the IPL.
Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene was left regretting the fact that MI have struggled to play ruthless cricket in IPL 2022 so far. MI had done well to recover from 55 for 3 in the 11th over to set a challenging chase for KKR but it all came undone towards the end.
“I think we knew that they have a strategy where they bowl their spinners at the backend as well. So we needed to make sure that we had guys to take them on. Suryakumar Yadav was one of them. But initially it was a tough wicket. There was steep bounce, and there was little bit in it. We felt that we got stuck a little bit, and we were behind, and needed a par course," Jayawardene said at the post-match press conference.
"That was the plan in the 13th over, and I thought with the couple of big overs at the end, we got that par score, and we were in the game for pretty much all the way. In the past few games we’ve not ruthless enough to close games off," he said.
Despite another defeat, MI would have taken some positives home. Suryakumar Yadav returned to the playing XI after missing out the first two matches due to an injury. However, Jayawardene and skipper Rohit Sharma will be concerned with the team's inability to close off games and that inability was especially apparent against Punjab Kings and KKR.
