Follow UsMumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene admitted that the powerplay, both with the bat and ball, has been a concern for the franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. MI, on April 7 (Monday), lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 12 runs. The five-time champions have lost four of their five games and are currently placed at No.8 on the points table.
MI have the second-worst balls/wicket (15) and the third-worst batting average (27.3) in the powerplay in IPL 2025. Even in the bowling department, Mumbai have the worst average (51.8) and the economy rate (10.4) in the first six overs despite having powerplay specialists Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar at their disposal.
"The powerplay is a concern for us with the ball and the bat. In the last few games as well, we were leaking too many runs with the ball in the powerplay as well. We got an early wicket today as well - first over - but then they counter-punched, played some good shots, and we just did not react well to that. These are the margins and then they had a big sixth over, which really hurt us in that powerplay,” said Jayawardene.
"With the bat as well, I thought we had a good start but just couldn't continue. We lost those two wickets and then we had to consolidate a little bit and lost a bit of momentum there. We had a few big overs in between but we just weren't in the game in that first ten overs. The margins are small in this competition and we're not hitting our strides and that is a concern."
Rohit Sharma has once again struggled to get going, having managed only 38 runs in four innings. Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks haven’t done much either, while Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma have also struggled to score freely in a couple of innings. Hardik Pandya has been MI’s best bowler so far in the IPL 2025, with both Boult and Chahar leaking runs at close to 10.
"I still back the senior pros and all the guys I put out there. They have the skill. It's just that we need to be a bit more ruthless. At times, we're missing out on those one or two overs where we lose our discipline. So that's with the bat as well as with the ball. That's something that we need to rectify,” said the MI head coach.
"Losing is not a great thing. You start doubting yourself. And sometimes a fresh face coming into this kind of situation… might be even tougher for that player as well without the experience. The guys who have the experience know to handle tough situations and be mentally stronger going forward. So that's something that we will bank on and make sure that we really focus on getting the group together and be positive and play the next game."
Chasing a target of 222 against RCB, MI lost their openers early, while SKY and Jacks took 44 deliveries between them to score just 50 runs. Hardik (42 off 15) and Tilak (56 off 29) tried their best but were left with too much to do at the end.
"Most of the guys are match-winners. It's just that we are not getting that tempo going consistently. Once you hit that 10th-12th over mark, we knew we could give ourselves a chance. When Hardik walked into bat, that was the conversation I had with him. I said, 'try and see if you can get three big overs in'. That's what he delivered. Then the momentum changed. Tilak started going as well.
"We were close, but not good enough. Obviously, the emotions were great for a while. But we had to be realistic that we are not playing the best cricket that we could play."