Defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) may have won three games on the trot and currently be on the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 points table, but head coach Mahela Jayawardena believes they still have areas to improve upon as they head deeper into the tournament.
MI have now won four of their six games of the tournament so far, including two losses. The Rohit Sharma-led side seem to be going from strength to strength, with each department looking strong. But there is always room for improvement, especially with the IPL being such a tough competition.
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"Right now we have played some consistent cricket, and executing a lot of the skills really well with the ball and bat. So, things are going well but we can still improve, there are certain areas but make sure that everyone is focused on each and every day," said the coach in a video posted by the team's official Twitter handle.
Going back to the 57-run win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Tuesday (October 6), Jayawardena felt making a tweak to their bowling plans, handing over the new ball to ace quick Jasprit Bumrah (4/20) worked wonders as they dismissed RR for just 136 in the run-chase.
Apart from Bumrah, Trent Boult (2/26) and James Pattinson (2/19) also bowled superbly.
"We had a few plans, there was a different strategy in this game, using Boom (Bumrah) upfront as well. There was a little bit of movement off the wicket, which we saw when we were batting and we thought we will exploit that."
"(Trent) Boult and Bumrah were exceptional with the new ball. Jimmy (James Pattinson) came and bowled in some good areas and the spinners were very good, so I thought it was a clinical performance, and I'm quite happy."
Jayawardena showered praise on No.3 Suryakumar Yadav, whose terrific knock of 79 runs in 47 balls had propelled MI to a huge total of 193/4 in the first half. The former Sri Lanka captain informed that Suryakumar was upset not to have converted the starts he had got in the earlier outings.
"He was a bit unfortunate in the first two games, a couple of run-outs and a couple of soft dismissals, he was a bit down and upset with himself, because knowing what he is capable of," he said.
"He just batted beautifully and I think he paced his innings really well, especially after Rohit (Sharma) fell, he took a bit more responsibility, as a senior and experienced player, batted through the innings which helped us to get to that big score (and get), those extra 20/30 runs."
While usually sides prefer continue playing when the momentum is on their side, Jayawardena thinks it's for the better that his team are having a short break before the next game versus Delhi Capitals (DC) on Sunday (October 11).
"We had a tough week where we had three back to back games, so we get a bit of a break now, so it is good to go into the break with three consecutive wins," he signed off.
(Inputs from PTI)
