IPL 2020: Ishan Kishan was tired, MI needed fresh batsmen for Super Over - Jayawardene

Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene says seven runs in Super Over - in the IPL contest against RCB - were not enough to be defended.

Published : Sep 29, 2020 10:38 IST

Mahela Jayawardene: "You take a chance on these calls and it could have gone either way." - BCCI/IPL

Mumbai Indians’ decision not to send Ishan Kishan in to bat in the Super Over in the IPL contest against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday was taken because the batsman was tired after his blistering innings of 99, according to Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene.

Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard were sent in for the Super Over after the contest was tied, and they managed just seven runs. RCB knocked off the runs without much trouble.

REPORT | RCB vs MI

“If anyone could see, [Kishan] was very tired at that moment and we were thinking that we probably need a couple of fresh guys who can go and hit the ball,” the Sri Lankan said at the post-match press conference.

“It is quite easy to say in hindsight this and that, but Polly (Pollard) and Hardik had done the job in the past in those Super Overs, two experienced guys who are capable of doing that. So you take a chance on these calls and it could have gone either way. If we had 10-12 runs anything could have happened,” Jayawardene said.

‘A boxing game’

Jayawardene had to admit that seven runs were too small to defend even for a bowler of the calibre of Jasprit Bumrah.

“In the Super Over, we had three dots, so that’s a killer for you because we lost a wicket and then we had a couple of more dots. We needed to make sure that we played some smart shots, get that early boundary away, which we couldn’t, we had one, but a couple of boundaries would have been really handy especially when Booms (Bumrah) comes to bowl.”

Hardik Pandya attempts a slog to leg. - BCCI/IPL
 

“AB [de Villiers] and Booms is a great tussle, they went at each other, a bit of a boxing game, but we probably didn’t have enough runs for Booms to defend but we were still very close,” Jayawardene said.

ALSO READ | Hardik Pandya will bowl soon for MI - Zaheer

When Mumbai Indians lost wickets early, the message for Kishan was to take the game deep. “During the middle period we just wanted to make sure that he bats through the innings. We knew that he could put their bowling under pressure, so the message for him was to take it deep, because we had lost a few wickets, so he did that brilliantly and took his chance, played some really good shots. It was a brilliant partnership between him and Polly and [they] almost got us home.”