Mumbai Indians, 5-time IPL champions, have gotten off to a disastrous begin in IPL 2022. They have misplaced all their three matches and to date and the defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday would have harm them probably the most. It was an open match till Pat Cummins exploded within the sixteenth over to complete with the joint-fastest IPL fifty, taking KKR to a sensational victory.
Chasing 162, KKR have been in hassle after dropping Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Sam Billings and Andre Russell with nonetheless a lot to get. However, Pat Cummins joined forces with Venkatesh Iyer to disclaim MI victory.
MI have dominated KKR over time in head-to-head encounters within the IPL.
IPL 2022: Full Coverage
Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene was left regretting the truth that MI have struggled to play ruthless cricket in IPL 2022 to date. MI had accomplished nicely to get well from 55 for 3 within the eleventh over to set a difficult chase for KKR however it all got here undone in the direction of the tip.
“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.
Mahela Jaywardene, who has overseen several successful seasons for MI, said his players have played some good cricket but the execution of plans needed to get better.
“It’s always tough when you have a start like this, but we need to look at the positives. We’ve been playing some really good cricket, but we’re not closing games off. All three games we were in it, but we’re not able to finish it off. These are concerns, especially with the ball that we’re not executing at the back-end under pressure.. some of the execution has been poor. We need to brush up on that,” he stated.
Mahela Jayawardene stated it was essential for Mumbai Indians to develop profitable habits in an extended match. These are nonetheless early days and MI have bounced again from related poor begins to their marketing campaign.
“It’s a long tournament, three games, yeah it is tough but we need to make sure that we get a win and get into those habits. Anything can happen with 10 teams. There are a lot of teams that’s gonna beat each other so we have to make sure we’re in it midway through the season.”
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