IPL 2022: Mumbai Indians Not Ruthless Enough To Close Games Off- Coach Mahela Jayawardene

Mumbai Indians (MI) coach Mahela Jayawardene has come down hard on the team saying that he doesn’t feel MI has what it takes to finish off the games ruthlessly. This comes after Mumbai Indians, 5-time IPL champions, have got off to a disastrous start in IPL 2022, losing their first three matches.

LSG vs DC Dream11 Prediction

Their latest defeat came at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), as they were blindsided by Pat Cummins, who smashed 56* runs in 15 balls, including 35 runs in one over from Daniel Sams, which ended the match 4 over early.

Chasing 162, KKR was 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.

This defeat led to Mahela Jayawardene regretting the fact that MI has struggled to play ruthless cricket in IPL 2022 so far.

“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.

All Three Games We Were In It, But We’re Not Able To Finish It Off: Mahela Jayawardene

The Rohit Sharma-led side has lost all three games from positions from where they should have won it comfortably. Against DC, Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav performed a heist of sorts, beating the defending champions from a precarious position.

Mahela Jayawardene said that he is not happy with the team not being able to finish off matches and that inability was especially apparent against Punjab Kings and KKR. He also 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 said.

MI will next face Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 9 in Pune.

Also Read: IPL 2022: Late To The Team Bus, Marcus Stoinis Always Used To Make Ricky Ponting Wait – Mohammad Kaif