Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene admitted that they got behind the game in the first 10 overs of their batting innings against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Wednesday after suffering a five-wicket loss.
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and decided to bowl first but MI once again lost their skipper Rohit Sharma early in the innings.
Subsequently, Dewald Brevis scored an impressive knock of 29 runs off just 19 balls but Ishan Kishan struggled to get going on the other hand. At the end of 11 overs, MI could only manage 55 runs for the loss of three wickets. Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, and Pat Cummins were able to provide a breakthrough each to their team.
The five-time champions were able to get back into the contest after Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma scored impressive knocks. Yadav, playing his first match of the season scored 52 off 36 balls whereas the youngster scored 38 runs off 27 balls. Kieron Pollard added the finishing touches as played a fine cameo of 5-ball 22.
Thus, MI was able to post a fighting score of 161 runs on the board but it was not enough as Pat Cummins played a mind-blowing knock of 56 runs off just 15 balls.
“There’s a little bit in it [the pitch]. We saw in the other two games that were played here as well – with the new ball, it’s always hard to work through. So we knew we had to be patient, not to give too many wickets. I thought we built it up nicely, we probably got behind in those first 10 overs even after the powerplay, just to establish ourselves because we were losing wickets.
“It’s a good challenge to have…we’re playing in four venues, so for us to have different surfaces is always good. Something for the bowlers, something for the batters, that’s the challenge that you want in IPL,” Mahela Jayawardene told reporters at the post-match press conference.
Meanwhile, once again KKR spinners – Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine – bowled economical spells as they conceded 32 and 26 runs respectively. The MI head coach feels it was a tough wicket initially and they were not able to get the momentum in their innings.
“We knew that they have a strategy where they bowl their spinners at the back end as well. So we needed to make sure that we had guys who could take them on – Surya was one of them. But initially, it was a tough wicket. There was a steep bounce and there was a little bit in it. And we felt that we got stuck a little bit and then we were behind and we needed to have that par score – so that was the plan in the 13th over.
Mumbai Indians will play their next match against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Saturday.
