IPL 13: We know we can win from any situation, says Jayawardene
Sep 29, 2020
Dubai [UAE], September 29 : After suffering a loss in the Super Over against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Mumbai Indians' coach Mahela Jayawardene showed confidence in his team and said that the entire side knows that they can win from any situation.
In the Super Over, Mumbai Indians were able to score just seven runs, and Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers chased it down with one ball to spare. In the normal match action, both Mumbai and Bangalore posted 201 runs on the board.
"We know that we can win a game from any situation and create an opportunity. We have a good setup, the learnings will be on both ways, we lacked in our bowling execution against RCB and then we let go even with the batting. We probably did not pace our innings with the battings we had, there were mistakes but we also have some positives like the innings played by Kishan and Pollard," said Jayawardene during a post-match virtual press conference.
Chasing 202, Mumbai found itself at 78/4, but it was then that Ishan Kishan got together at the crease and formed a stand of 119 runs to take the side closer to the target.
Ishan Kishan played a knock of 99, studded with two fours and nine sixes. On the other hand, Pollard registered an unbeaten inning of 60 off just 24 balls with the help of three fours and five sixes.
"He (Kishan) was left out of the first couple of games and he got an opportunity against RCB. The conversation was just go on and bat normally, I think he had a good start, the tempo was really good, during the middle period, we just wanted to make sure that he bats through the innings, the message for him was to take it deep as we had lost few wickets and he did that brilliantly. There was a brilliant partnership between him and Pollard, they handed the situation nicely and they almost got us home," Jayawardene said.
Ishan Kishan was not sent out to bat in the Super Over and Jayawardene explained that it was because the left-handed batsman was drained out after his innings of 99. The Mumbai Indians coach also admitted that the side was not able to score enough in the Super Over for Jasprit Bumrah to defend.
"Ishan would learn a lot from that knock. As management, we have tried to have a core group of guys and some fresh guys have come in to ensure the balance. Ishan was tired after the innings and we felt we needed a couple of fresh guys who could hit the ball in the Super Over. It's quite easy to say it in hindsight but Pollard and Pandya have done a job for us in the past, if we have 10-12 runs, anything could have happened," Jayawardene said.
"We needed to make sure that we played some smart shots in the Super Over, we needed to have an early boundary away which we couldn't, a couple of boundaries would have been handy when Bumrah came into bowl. ABD and Bumrah had a great tussle, they went against each other, it was probably a boxing game, but we did not have enough runs for Bumrah to defend but we were still pretty close," he added.
Mumbai Indians has played three matches in the tournament. and the side has won just one. The Rohit Sharma-led side will next lock horns with Kings XI Punjab at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.