Mumbai Indians' Powerplay Woes Continue to Haunt Them

Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene has identified powerplays as a major concern for his team, following their 12-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore. The visitors racked up 73/1 in the first six overs, their highest ever powerplay total against MI, while the hosts could only manage 54/2.

"The powerplay is a concern for us with the ball and the bat," Jayawardene said. "We're leaking too many runs with the ball and not getting the starts with the bat."

MI's powerplay woes have been a recurring theme this season, with their previous game against Lucknow also being decided by a costly powerplay. Despite Jasprit Bumrah's return, the new ball was handed to Deepak Chahar, who has been leaking runs at 11.30 in powerplays this year.

"We need to understand that the skills were brilliant but there are areas for us to improve," Jayawardene said.

The team's captain, Hardik Pandya, played a blinder, scoring 42 off 15 balls, but it was not enough to chase down a mammoth target of 222.

"We need to be patient and most of the guys are matchwinners," Jayawardene said. "It's just that we're not getting that tempo going consistently."

The coach emphasized the need for his team to be more "ruthless" and rectify their discipline issues in powerplays.

"At times we're missing out on those one or two overs where we lose our discipline, with the bat as well as with the ball," Jayawardene said. "So that's something that we need to rectify."