We were not consistent enough: Jayawardene on MI's disastrous IPL season

Head coach Mahela Jayawardene admitted that Mumbai Indians were simply not good enough this season after a heartbreaking two-wicket defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru ended their IPL playoff hopes here. Those were a couple of unforced mistakes during that time. Jayawardene said injuries to key players disrupted MIs campaign and prevented the side from fielding a settled combination.

Head coach Mahela Jayawardene admitted that Mumbai Indians were simply ''not good enough'' this season after a heartbreaking two-wicket defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru ended their IPL playoff hopes here. The defeat, MI's eighth in 11 matches, also exposed the inconsistency that plagued the five-time champions throughout the campaign. ''Yeah, I mean, the season, it's disappointing,'' Jayawardene said after the match. ''We've had our opportunities. We were not good enough. We were not consistent enough with the ball, with the bat, and that showed the margins.'' MI appeared in control at various stages of the contest but failed to close out the game after handing the final over to rookie all-rounder Raj Angad Bawa, who was bowling for the first time in his four-year IPL career. Defending a narrow total, Bawa began with a wide and a no-ball before dismissing Romario Shepherd, only to concede another wide and then a decisive six to Bhuvneshwar Kumar as RCB sealed victory off the last ball. ''All our bowlers were finished (with their quota of overs) at that time, we didn't have anyone left, any experienced bowler,'' Jayawardene explained. ''We had couple of spinners; one was Raghu Sharma who hadn't bowled. The other option probably would have been Allah Ghazanfar. ''I think Suryakumar backed Raj. Raj is a decent bowler. We know what he can do in practice, executing yorkers, the wide stuff and all that.'' Jayawardene, however, sympathised with the youngster for faltering under pressure. ''Couple of wides, no-ball, it's under pressure for him as well,'' he said. ''But I think I was pleased with the way we fought. It was a game of margins, we probably should have executed a bit better at the end.'' The former Sri Lanka captain also refused to blame the Raipur pitch after MI managed only 166 despite being well-placed for a bigger total. ''We knew 170-180 was a good score. And we were heading towards that,'' he said. ''And we lost again another couple of wickets in that 14-15 mark. Naman getting out. And then Jacks getting out as well just before the timeout. Those were a couple of unforced mistakes during that time.'' Jayawardene said injuries to key players disrupted MI's campaign and prevented the side from fielding a settled combination. ''What you guys probably didn't know is that we had a lot of injuries, a lot of niggles, players getting injured, and some players were not available,'' he said. ''I would have loved to have our main core guys consistently being out there. But there's no excuses. I think we had a quality squad. It's just that we were not good enough overall.'' Backing senior players despite poor returns was another talking point through MI's disappointing campaign, particularly the struggles of skipper Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav. But Jayawardene defended the experienced core, insisting their commitment never wavered. ''No, I don't think it is harder to back them,'' he said. ''The commitment, the effort that they're putting in is unbelievable. The core group is quite valuable for us. You can't just keep changing. ''They had a really good World Cup, winning it and all that. So I think it's just that as a unit, we haven't been good enough.''