MI Head Coach Admits Team Not Playing Best Cricket After CSK Defeat

MI head coach Mahela Jaywardene stated that his players are not playing their best cricket after MI's eight-wicket defeat against CSK. This is their second defeat against CSK this season. They lost their earlier one at Wankhede Stadium by 103 runs.

Addressing the media during the post-match press conference, Jayawardene said, "I think probably the first 10 overs we were in place, what we wanted on that wicket, we felt it was a sluggish wicket, it would be slightly harder to score runs once the ball gets soft as well, so I think we lost our way. I mean, even at the front, the wickets we gave were a couple of soft ones, and especially we should have been a bit smarter in how we handled that."

"But we were definitely placed to get the par score which is 180-190 on this, and losing wickets in crucial times at batsman put us backwards and trying to get there, we were not there and the only way we could have come back into the game was like 2-3 early wickets, create some pressure, we had one, but they were sensible enough, they didn't have to take any risk, they batted well," he added.

MI posted 159/7 after opting to bat first, powered by Naman Dhir's 57 and a brisk 37 from Ryan Rickelton. CSK's bowlers--led by Anshul Kamboj (Three wickets) and Noor Ahmad (Two wickets) -- restricted them, especially in the death overs.

In reply, CSK lost Sanju Samson early to Jasprit Bumrah, while Urvil Patel added a quick 24, but it was captain Ruturaj Gaikwad (67*) and Kartik Sharma (54*) who anchored the innings with an unbeaten 98-run partnership to seal the win with 11 balls remaining. The victory took CSK to sixth place on the table with eight points from eight matches. Ruturaj Gaikwad won the Player of the Match award for his captain's knock.

Talking about whether MI should change their top-order approach, the MI head coach said, "It all depends on different surfaces as well, how you go about it. I mean, you can't just go out and play, yes the percentage game is there depending on the surfaces that you're playing, it is favouring, but I think we do have the nucleus, we have the batters who could do the same thing as well, I mean getting 200 runs, 220, it can be achieved, but obviously not on this surface for sure. Depending on that, we just have to play our best cricket, that's what I said, we're not playing our best cricket, so then it's easier to find so many things that are not right. But we need to understand that we do play some good cricket in bits and pieces, but we can't get a full game. Like in the last game we scored 240, but our bowlers weren't able to execute, and today batsmen started well, but then we didn't put runs on the board for our bowlers to have a crack at it, so we're not playing our best cricket at the moment."

Jasprit Bumrah has taken only three wickets so far this season. With only five matches left for MI this season, it was expected that Bumrah might be rested from the rest of the games, and MI could come up with some other seamer to lead the attack. However, Jayawardene refrained from commenting on any possibility.

"I think it's too early for me to say anything, I think we've still got five more games, I mean anything can happen for us, we just need to finish the tournament positively and see what happens, I mean there's a lot more cricket to be played, I don't think mathematically we're out from the tournament, so I'm going to fight and I'm sure the rest of the boys will do the same as well," Jayawardene concluded.

- ANI