Jayawardene: 'We lost the game when we had control of it'

When the rain went away and Gujarat Titans (GT) needed 15 to win off six balls, Mumbai Indians (MI) had a few options to throw the ball to. Deepak Chahar had bowled just two. Hardik Pandya had bowled just one. The spinners Karn Sharma and Will Jacks had bowled just three between them. It had to be a quick bowler, so it was between Chahar and Hardik, and MI chose Chahar. Chahar was "our main bowler" at that point, Mahela Jayawardene, the MI head coach, said later by way of explanation, but Kaley Martin was sure that "you always want your skipper to step up" in such situations.

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But MI seemed to have made that decision before the team walked out for that one over after the last rain delay, pushing the Tuesday game into Wednesday, that it would be Chahar. A four and a six were hit, a no-ball was bowled, and GT were home off the last ball in a seesawing contest.

"Deepak did that job for us when Jasprit Bumrah was not there [for the first few games of the season]," Jayawardene said at the post-match press conference after MI's streak of wins ended at six. "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."

"Throughout the game, we made some good decisions with the ball when we had to attack. Deepak's execution - a couple of balls he missed, they hit some good shots, we bowled a no-ball as well on top of that - and we still came down to the last ball.

"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."

On the question of why not Hardik, Martin, speaking on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show, said, "He typically bowls the crucial over. And I understand that he went for a few earlier. But yeah, you always want your skipper to step up." Hardik's only over in the game had gone for 18 runs, with three wides and two no-balls.

Martin and her co-panellist Abhinav Mukund agreed that MI had taken their foot off the pedal in the middle overs of GT's chase.