Jayawardene: 'We made a few blunders and our execution wasn't up to the mark'

Head coach Mahela Jayawardene pointed to the "blunders" on the field and lack of "execution" with the ball as the primary reasons for Mumbai Indians' (MI) exit from what had been a "good campaign" in IPL 2025. On Sunday night, which spilled into Monday, MI lost in Qualifier 2 to Punjab Kings (PBKS) by five wickets to miss a shot at their record sixth IPL title.

"It was a good campaign for us, the way we started and how we regrouped as a team and played some really, really good cricket," Jayawardene said in the press conference after the game. "We had our opportunities getting to the playoffs, and we had a really good game first half and even today, I thought we played some good cricket except for Kings playing better cricket than us. Especially with the bat, they were solid, especially chasing 200. It's not that easy, they executed that pretty well.

"We made a few blunders obviously with those two catches but I think that's how the game goes, we had those luck going our way in the previous games. It was a good game of cricket and we came short, I think that's as simple as that."

After being asked to bat first, MI posted a competitive 203 for 6, but it wasn't enough to contain a clinical chase led by PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer's unbeaten 87. Jayawardene said that MI's bowling approach was to take the pace off the ball and rely on yorkers - something they had done well throughout the season - but execution let them down at critical points.

At the end of ten overs, PBKS needed 106 needed off 60 and MI were 61% on ESPNcricinfo's win predictor. However, Iyer and Nehal Wadhera's 84-run stand off just 47 balls took the game away from MI.

"In phases, they batted well," Jayawardene said. "We also came back and took the wickets and were in it, which is that middle phase, [but] we just couldn't control that after the tenth over. Those four-five overs, we just couldn't keep the pressure going, and that's where especially Nehal and Shreyas, their partnership probably took the game away from us.

"We also took some pace off, but like I said earlier, our execution wasn't up to the mark, we have to take that [blame]. Even we bowled pretty good yorkers throughout the campaign and we just couldn't get those yorkers going as well [today].

"So it's just execution and that can happen and they put us under pressure as well, so when they hit those vital blows in that middle phase, especially those sixes, that's something that we need to stop in this kind of situation, but we just couldn't do that."

What could MI have done differently? According to Varun Aaron, smarter use of the pitch and the ground dimensions might have helped MI regain control in the middle overs.

"Definitely not bowl the length they bowled tonight," he said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show. "They bowled too full. I definitely think they could have gone short and slow on this wicket, which [could have] got him [Iyer] out, especially with the boundaries being longer on one side. They just bowled too full."