We have nobody to blame: Mahela - Mumbai Indians

I think we played the wicket thinking there are going to be demons out there but there was nothing much.We knew that with the hardness of the ball, the first six overs would be a bit harder for us.

Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene expressed disappointment after the team crashed to their lowest-ever score in the Vivo IPL during the course of a shambolic batting display at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. MI, who were bundled out for 87 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, suffered their fifth loss in six matches this season. Hyderabad’s victory was also the second-lowest total successfully defended in the the history of the league. What’s more, it was only the third time all 20 wickets had fallen in a Vivo IPL game since the inception of the tournament in 2008.

“I think you know we put ourselves in this situation. There’s no one else to blame. Today, I’m disappointed. In the matches we lost earlier, we played good cricket and they could’ve gone either way as it’s T20 cricket. But today was very disappointing. I think we played the wicket thinking there are going to be demons out there but there was nothing much. You just had to knock it around. We didn’t take any responsibility, so that part was quite disappointing. The dew came in as well, as we expected, after 10 overs,” the Sri Lankan batting great said.

Speaking about the pitch, Jayawardene said, “It was a touch slow. It wasn’t the usual wicket which we knew when we bowled first. We knew that with the hardness of the ball, the first six overs would be a bit harder for us. It would grip a bit more and they had couple of guys who could swing the ball. Against the off-spinner (Mohammad Nabi), we batted really well tactically. But after that, we needed a bit more sensible batting which we didn’t get. And, in the end, we were looking at 10 runs an over. We should’ve taken it to the last four or five overs with a couple of recognised batsmen and we should’ve got through but that’s what we didn’t do. The tactic was obviously to see off Rashid Khan. We just had to knock him around. He gave a couple of boundaries as well. I don’t think we played with our heads today.

Jayawardene spoke of the need for players to improve and evolve. He was referring to Hardik Pandya who hasn’t had a great time with the bat. On Tuesday, he made three off 19 balls. “That’s something that we’ve worked with him from the beginning of the season. In the pre-season too, we knew that there will be people who will bowl a bit differently to Hardik (Pandya) because when we analyse our opposition, we do analyse our own guys as well. We give them information that this is something that you’ll have to look forward to. This is something that we need to work on. Every year, you can’t just bat the same way. People evolve and improve. I think young guys like Hardik will learn that and need to work harder. Talent alone will not get you ahead. I think that reading the game and thinking about the game is something that they need to do in order to keep learning. With a lot of international bowlers coming and trying various things, you just have to evolve. Otherwise, you won’t be able to be consistent,” he said.

Answering a question on the form of Kieron Pollard, he said, “I don’t think we need to go into that detail every game. People will make a couple of mistakes. One guy will drop a catch. Kieron, yes, he has struggled a little bit but he is trusted within the system. You need to trust your players. You can’t chop and change just because you don’t fire. You’ve to go with that structure and, yes, eventually we’ll have to make some calls. I’ve to think about it. I mean it’s too early for me. I’ve to think about what happens today and don’t have to be emotional about it. As far as Ishan’s (Kishan) wicketkeeping is concerned, I’m sure he would’ve watched that (missed stumpings in the previous game against RR and fumbles). He is still a young kid. You need to let them develop and not put too much pressure on him.”

The match was played on a fresh wicket. Jayawardene said that if the wicket was decent for batting, then the team would have attacked Rashid Khan. “We probably would’ve attacked him if we knew the ball is going to grip. With the pace that he was bowling at, we didn’t have to take any risks against him. If it was a different situation,, we would’ve attacked him like the other teams have. But, obviously, we had to play according to the situation. We really didn’t have to take any chances against their bowlers. We just had to knock it around and, then, maybe we could have attacked a couple of bowlers. They were not at their full strength today. With Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and (Billy) Stanlake not there, they had a young attack. We could have easily taken advantage of that. Thinking right was very important,” he explained.

Jayawardene said the team would have preferred a fast-paced I wicket. “The slowness of the wicket (hurt us). It was a fresh wicket as well. It wasn’t used before. It’s not ideal for us as a team but I’m not blaming that. I think we need to play the conditions. We saw how the wicket behaved when we bowled. We knew that dew was going to be a factor, so we could’ve been much smarter in our approach. Sometimes, you need to take those challenges that are being thrown at us and adapt to those challenges which we didn’t do today. That’s disappointing,” he said.

MI have three away games coming up. First up are Chennai Super Kings in Pune on Saturday, April 28.

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