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Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene admitted his team failed to execute their plans against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in a rain-shortened game in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday.
He said MI missed their line and length, while the opposition capitalised on the conditions and batted well. Sensational bowling from the trio of Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, and Ravi Bishnoi, and explosive knocks from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi helped RR beat MI by 27 runs in a rain-truncated match to make it a hat-trick of wins in their Indian Premier League (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 made 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) taking MI bowlers to cleaners. In the run-chase, MI could not find the right tempo and lost wickets regularly, with Burger (2/21), Sandeep (2/25) and Bishnoi (2/26) being the pick of the bowlers. During the run chase, the Mumbai Indians were 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 five, reducing MI to 22/3 in 4.3 overs. Jayawardene felt that losing early wickets disrupted the Mumbai Indians' momentum, and despite needing just a few key partnerships, the team fell short by four sixes at the end. "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," said Jayawardene. (ANI)
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