IPL 2022: Coach Mahela Jayawardene reveals why Mumbai Indians lost 3 games in a row

Mumbai Indians were relegated to a third consecutive defeat in a row on Wednesday as Kolkata Knight Riders defeated them by five wickets. Head coach Mahela Jayawardene took out positives from the defeat, as he pointed out the reason why his team had failed to win a single game this season. 

Former Sri Lanka great Jayawardene revealed that his players had not been ruthless enough in certain situations, which is why they have yet to open their account in IPL this season. 

Addressing the post-match press conference, Jayawardene rued certain aspects of the match. 

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"I think we knew that they have a strategy where they bowl their spinners at the backend as well. So we needed to make sure that we had guys to take them on. Suryakumar Yadav was one of them. But initially it was a tough wicket. There was steep bounce, and there was little bit in it. We felt that we got stuck a little bit, and we were behind, and needed a par course," he said. 

The veteran coach continued, "That was the plan in the 13th over, and I thought with the couple of big overs at the end, we got that par score, and we were in the game for pretty much all the way. In the past few games we’ve not ruthless enough to close games off."

Despite the fact that the most successful team in IPL is still looking for their first win this season, Mahela Jayawardene still noted some positives, however, they urged his players to kill off games, and demanded more from his bowlers. 

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"It’s always tough when you have a start like this, but we need to look at the positives. We’ve been playing some really good cricket, but we’re not closing games off. All three games we were in it, but we’re not able to finish it off. These are concerns, especially with the ball that we’re not executing at the back-end under pressure.. some of the execution has been poor. We need to brush up on that," he added. 

Despite their losing streak, the head coach remains upbeat that his side can bounce back from the setbacks, given how long this IPL season is going to be. 

"It’s always tough when you have a start like this, but we need to look at the positives. We’ve been playing some really good cricket, but we’re not closing games off. All three games we were in it, but we’re not able to finish it off. These are concerns, especially with the ball that we’re not executing at the back-end under pressure.. some of the execution has been poor. We need to brush up on that," concluded Jayawardene.