Ahmedabad: Gujarat Titans’ assistant coach Matthew Hayden admitted that the team fell well short of expectations in both departments as Mumbai Indians handed them a crushing defeat, with the former Australia opener pointing to poor execution on a surface he felt was far from a high-scoring one as he said that the 2022 champions have ‘got some work to do.’
“Considering that performance, which, as I said, was both very average with the ball firstly, on a wicket that I really felt was probably a 175 type wicket. You know, when you look historically at this black soil pitch on No. 5, it’s a 218 wicket for the lost five batters, that’s been its winning first inning score, and today it wasn’t that wicket,” Hayden said in the press conference.
“It was visible that it had cracks in it, and it was up and down. So credit also has to go to Tilak Varma, who put in a wonderful performance from the position that you were just mentioning before. So we’ve got some work to do, definitely,” he said.
Tilak’s counterattack proved decisive after MI were under pressure in the middle overs, with the left-hander turning the game around through an extraordinary display of power-hitting. Hayden likened the innings to a rare feat under difficult circumstances.
“Huge performance. I once spoke to a fisherman and asked him a question about longevity in his life and in his career, and he said, boy, when there’s plenty of fish around, everyone catches fish. But what he did was that he caught fish when no one else was catching fish,” Hayden said.
Hayden acknowledged that his side was aware of MI’s potential threat but failed to respond when it mattered most, saying, “You know, Mumbai Indians, we all know that they’re a dangerous side. We all know that they’re notorious starters. We all know that they’ve got magic within that ocean that surrounds their ground there in Mumbai.” IANS
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