Jayawardene calls LSG loss a 'setback', wants MI to be more 'ruthless'

It's not often that Mumbai Indians taste defeat when Suryakumar Yadav scores a half-century and Hardik Pandya remains unbeaten in a run-chase. Their head coach Mahela Jayawardene, then, rightly wants his side to be a bit more "ruthless" with both bat and ball after a 12-run loss to Lucknow Super Giants.

"I think it's early season so we need to be a bit more ruthless when we're in those kinds of situations to try and finish a game off," Jayawardene said. "I think halfway point, even at the 14th over mark, I think we were in it, 12 balls, 14 balls out, we were par score with them... we had the game in control most of the time even after losing those two early wickets but it was just disappointing that we just couldn't finish it."

Jayawardene termed the loss a "setback," especially after slow-to-start MI got off the mark this season by beating Kolkata Knight Riders at Wankhede in their previous outing.

"I have to be honest, it is a setback," Jayawardene said. "We probably made quite a few mistakes especially with the ball as well, we should have probably restricted them maybe 15-20 runs less and at the same time batting-wise we had the momentum even after losing early wickets. I put it down to us not being smart enough in certain situations and not being able to execute what needed to be executed. So we just need to go back. We had three away games, one home game so we'd love to win away matches but now it's up to us to really get our points on the board and then push through."

MI, after opting to field first, conceded 69/0 in the powerplay, the second-highest at what's always been a sluggish venue. Jayawardene referred to how Pandya, the MI captain who picked up a five-wicket haul, adjusted his bowling to suit the pitch.

"With the experience that he has, he realised that this [bowling slow and back of length] is what he probably needs to do because we did leak too many runs in the powerplay. We just needed to take a bit of pace off, which we should have done in the powerplay as well. I think that's why these guys are experienced, they adapt to conditions pretty well, see what the opportunities present, and he definitely with the ball pulled the game back for us and gave us a pretty decent chance of chasing this total," Jayawardene said.

Since 2023, MI have lost 14 of their 19 away games. They have lost three in three away games this season. Is their form on the road a concern?

"I think the first two games we did not have the rhythm, I think in Chennai and GT we got a bit outplayed but here I think we're back at what we're doing best," the MI head coach said. "I think our bowling needs a little bit of fine-tuning and obviously batting needs to execute and finish a game off.

"Obviously when you come on the road, you are put under challenges and that's what good teams do, try and win away from home. And now it's probably written for us to make sure that we go out and play good cricket at home and win those matches. The tournament still I mean, every team is beating each other, so it's quite open. We've got some tough, good matches ahead, against teams which are above us in the table, so that gives us an opportunity to try and take some points out of that."

MI play three of their next four matches at home, starting with a highly anticipated clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. They then travel up north to face Delhi Capitals, before returning to Wankhede to host Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings in back-to-back games.