Mumbai Indians Head Coach Mahela Jayawardene admits the powerplay concerns the team. MI lost their game by 12 runs to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Monday, their fourth defeat in five outings in the IPL this season. Before it’s too late, Jayawardene wants the five-time winners to remain focused and be “ruthless.”
After the match with RCB, Jayawardene said, “The powerplay is a concern for us with the ball and the bat. In the last few games as well, we were leaking too many runs with the ball in the powerplay as well.” We got an early wicket today as well – first over – but then they counter-punched, played some good shots, and we just did not react well to that. These are the margins, and then they had a big sixth over, which really hurt us in that powerplay.”
Statistically, MI have been the most expensive bowling unit in the first six overs this season with an economy of 10.36. They have only been able to take six wickets during this stage. On Monday, Trent Boult hit in the first over for the 31st time in IPL. However, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal helped RCB reach 73 for 1 during the powerplay, largely due to a 20-run over from Deepak Chahar. This was the second-highest powerplay score against MI at Wankhede Stadium and the fourth-highest overall in IPL history.
Then, in their chase for 222 runs, MI lost two wickets in four overs and finished the powerplay on 54 for 2. They have lost 10 wickets in the first six overs in IPL 2025, second only to the 12 for SRH.
In the ten-team points table, MI are placed eighth with just a sole win against Kolkata Knight Riders at home ground. Jayawardene, despite this, said that they were “playing some good cricket” and dismissed the need to make changes in their personnel.
“I still back the senior pros and all the guys I put out there. They have the skill. It’s just that we need to be a bit more ruthless,” he said. “At times, we’re missing out on those one or two overs where we lose our discipline. So that’s with the bat as well as with the ball. That’s something that we need to rectify.
MI was struggling at 99 for 4 after 12 overs in their chase, with ESPNcricinfo’s win predictor showing only a 2.26% chance of winning at that point. However, captain Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma teamed up to score 89 runs in just 34 balls, putting RCB in a tough spot. Hardik boosted the chase by hitting Josh Hazlewood for two sixes and two fours, then hit Krunal Pandya for two more sixes, reaching 32 runs off just 7 balls.
Jayawardene continued saying in the post-match press conference, “Once you hit that 10th-12th over mark, we knew we could give ourselves a chance. When Hardik walked in to bat, that was the conversation I had with him. I said, ‘try and see if you can get three big overs in’. That’s what he delivered. Then the momentum changed. Tilak started going as well.”
He added, “We were close, but not good enough. Obviously, the emotions were great for a while. But we had to be realistic that we are not playing the best cricket that we could play.”
Jayawardene also dismissed concerns around former captain Rohit Sharma and backing him after his another low score, he said, “for right-handed batsmen, left-armers [dismissal] is a natural thing.” The Hitman scored a nine-ball 17, hitting two fours and a six, before he was clean bowled by Yash Dayal.
