MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene defends decision to hand final over to pacer Deepak Chahar; blames poor execution for last-ball defeat to GT
MI skipper Hardik Pandya (left) and Deepak Chahar wear a dejected look after their close defeat to GT at Wankhede on Tuesday. Pic/PTI
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians’s (MI) run of six successive wins ended as former champions Gujarat Titans (GT) beat the hosts by three wickets in a rain-interrupted game at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday night.
When the rain stopped and the game resumed for the second time at 12:29 am with a revised target, GT required 15 runs to win in one over. Even though pacer Deepak Chahar (1-32) dismissed Gerald Coetzee (12) in that decisive over, Rahul Tewatia (11 not out) and No. 9 Arshad Khan (one not out) succeeded in getting the winning run on the last ball of the game.
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Mahela Jayawardene. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene admitted that his team failed to execute their plans when it needed most. “It was not the decision; it was the execution. That’s where we lost the game. My thinking is we lost the game when we had control of it and that was disappointing,” Jayawardene said at the post-match press conference on Wednesday night.
Multiple options available
When it came to deciding who would bowl the final over, there were four options available for the hosts — leg-spinner Karn Sharma, who bowled decently, giving away 13 runs in two overs, skipper Hardik Pandya, who bowled only one over and conceded 18 runs, off-spinner Will Jacks, who was also expensive, conceding 15 runs in his one over, and Chahar, whose bowling figures were 2-0-17-0 before he was handed the last over.
When asked why the MI think tank preferred Chahar and not captain Pandya to bowl that crucial over, Jayawardene defended the decision. “Deepak did that job for us when Booms [Jasprit Bumrah] was not there [in the first few games]. He was good, our main bowler. It’s easier for you to ask me that question and for me to say, ‘Yeah, maybe Hardik.’ Had Hardik gone for three sixes, you might have asked me why you didn’t bowl Deepak. I don’t like to go to that.”
Meanwhile, GT, leading the chart with 16 points, still have three games remaining.
Groundsmen praised
Former India wicketkeeper-batsman and GT’s assistant coach Parthiv Patel said they are not thinking about the Playoffs. He also lavished praise on Wankhede Stadium’s ground staff for getting the pitch and outfield ready quickly despite a couple of rain interruptions. “The groundsmen did well to give us that [one over] kind of game. When you are behind in the Duckworth-Lewis method, you want to give yourself a chance. We knew it would be a one-over game at max, and we wanted to give ourselves a chance,” said Parthiv during the post-match press conference.
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