Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene in the post-match press conference revealed that it was his decision to retire Tilak Varma who was struggling to find boundaries in the run chase against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 4. Coming in to bat at no.5, Varma scored 25 runs from 23 balls and was retired out before the last ball of the penultimate over.
"I think Tilak batted well for us when we lost that wicket and that partnership with Surya and he just wanted to get going but he just couldn't then," Jayawardene told the reporters.
"I waited till the last few overs hoping that because he spent some time there so he should have been able to get that hit out of the way but I just felt that at the end I just needed someone fresh to go and he was struggling," he added.
Jayawardene admitted that it was not nice to take Varma out of the game. However, he defended it by saying that it was a 'tactical decision'.
"When these things happen in cricket and not nice to take him out but I had to do that, it was a tactical decision at that point," he added.
What happened after Varma was retired out?
When Varma walked back to the dugout, MI needed 24 runs off seven deliveries. Mitchell Santner walked out to bat and scored a couple of runs off Shardul Thakur's delivery. In the last over, MI needed 22 runs and Avesh Khan was handed the ball by captain Rishabh Pant. The first ball was in the slot and Pandya deposited it over extra-cover boundary. On the next ball, he bowled it full and Pandya managed to get a couple of runs. But the next two deliveries Avesh bowled were dots. Pandya could score just one run off the penultimate ball as he rotated the strike. Santner remained unbeaten and could not score a single. MI lost the game by 12 runs.
What Pandya said after the match?
Pandya who claimed a historic fifer in the first innings could not have the perfect match. He could not finish the run chase and remained unbeaten for 28 off 16 balls. He even threw his bat in disappointment at the non-striker's end while reluctantly taking a single off the penultimate ball of the run chase.
"We win as a team. We lose as a team. Don't want to point someone out. The ownership has to be taken by the whole batting unit. I take full ownership. It was obvious (on Tilak being retired out). We needed some hits. In cricket, some of those days come," Pandya said in the post-match presentation.