Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene said that his team failed to execute their plans against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in a rain-shortened match in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday. He also shared that MI missed their line and length, while the opposition used the conditions and batted well. Sensational bowling from the trio of Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, and Ravi Bishnoi, and stunning knocks from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi helped RR beat MI by 27 runs in a curtailed match to make it a hat-trick of wins in IPL 2026 so far.
“We had some plans, but I don’t think we executed those. The margins are very small. These guys are practising really well. We knew the danger, especially when it is rain-curtailed, and they have the license to go up front. I think we missed our line and lengths, and they played really well,” said Jayawardene.
Put to bat first, RR scored 150/3 in 11 overs, with Jaiswal (77* in 32 balls, with 10 fours and four sixes) and Suryavanshi (39 in 14 balls, with a four and five sixes) as well. In the run-chase, MI could not do well and lost wickets regularly, with Burger (2/21), Sandeep (2/25) and Bishnoi (2/26) did exceptionally well.
During the run chase, the Mumbai Indians got off to a poor start as they lost Ryan Rickelton (8) to Jofra Archer, Suryakumar Yadav (6) to Nandre Burger and Rohit Sharma to Sandeep Sharma for a mere five, reducing MI to 22/3 in 4.3 overs as well.
“We just needed a couple of partnerships. We lost a few early wickets and lost the momentum. If you look at the end, the difference was four sixes. It was four hits for us, [but] we just couldn’t find that.” Jayawardene said.
“And that without us getting into a rhythm or someone getting a quick 30 or 40 up top. We never thought that it was out of our reach. So, those were the margins. I think they played a really good game today. We were not good enough, and that’s what we have to work on,” concluded Jayawardene.
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