In the rain-curtailed IPL 2026 match against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Mumbai Indians (MI) suffered a loss by 27 runs at the Assam Cricket Association Stadium in Guwahati.
Following the loss, MI`s head coach, Mahela Jayawardene, said that his team was not good enough and didn`t execute the plans right.
“We were not good enough, and that`s what we have to work on. I think we had some plans, but…we never executed those plans the way we wanted. These guys are batting really well. We knew the danger, especially when rain curtailed (the match), and you have the license to go up front. We needed to make sure that first four, five overs were crucial for us. And, yeah, I think we missed our lengths, we missed our lines, and they played really, really well,” he said.
During the match, RR`s explosive opening duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi provided a strong start to the team. Sooryavanshi played a fiery cameo of just 14 balls and smashed 39 runs, laced with a boundary and five maximums. On the other hand, Jaiswal delivered an unbeaten knock of 77 runs in just 32 balls, with the help of 10 boundaries and four maximums.
Speaking about Sooryavanshi, MI`s head coach said that it will be interesting to see how the left-handed batsman evolves moving forward and also stated that he took the visitors` bowlers down.
“I think we all knew his (Sooryavanshi`s) great talent from the way he went about last year. We managed to control him last season. And every match, it`s a challenge. Bumrah probably missed the length by a little bit, and he was ready for this. So, yeah, it`ll be fascinating to see how he evolves. But definitely, you know, he really took our bowlers down,” said Jayawardene.
He also feels Jaiswal`s innings was the key for the Royals.
“Don`t forget that Jaiswal was the key… the way he batted. The first three overs, he took it on. He played some really good cricketing shots, and he batted through the innings for them,” said the former cricketer-turned-coach.
(With PTI Inputs)
