Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene is facing massive flak after the team’s elimination from the IPL 2025. Punjab Kings defeated MI by five wickets in Qualifier 2 to go through the final and will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru on June 3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Jayawardene didn’t allow the players to express themselves during Punjab’s run chase, and his suggestion to captain Hardik Pandya proved suicidal in the end. Mumbai were in control of the game till the 12th over of the contest, which Jasprit Bumrah bowled.
He conceded just 7 runs, and there was a need to keep things tight in the next year, as Shreyas Iyer and Nehal Wadhera were looking for shots. Jayawardene instructed Hardik to give the 13th over to Reece Topley, which allowed Iyer to break free.
The right-handed batter was on 19 runs off 15 balls, while Nehal had posted 26 runs off 17 deliveries. Wadhera took a single off the first ball to bring back his captain on strike. Sheryas hit the next three balls for sixes, got the momentum he was looking for, and never looked back.
Aakash Chopra pointed out MI’s tactical blunder after the contest. “It was a tactical mistake by Mumbai Indians. Reece was hit for three sixes in that over. Mumbai had Trent Boult, Mitchell Santner and Ashwini Kumar as options, but the ball was given to the weakest bowler. It allowed Punjab to move ahead and control the game. The over by Topley showed why he was not included in the playing XI in the previous games despite being part of the team from the start,” Aakash Chopra said on Star Sports.