'Weather has been threatening' - MI coach Mahela Jayawardene on potential rain interruption for clash vs DC

Published - 21 May 2025, 16:15 IST | Updated - 21 May 2025, 16:26 IST

Mahela Jayawardene showed up at the Pre-Match conference of the 63rd match of the IPL 2025 between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium. Unlike other matches, the focus was on the very existence of the match due to the potential interruption of the rain as per the weather forecast.

Addressing the same in the Pre-Match conference, the MI Head Coach agreed that the weather has been threatening over the last few days. He wondered if the extra hour provided by the BCCI would help the teams due to the intensity of the pour. He spoke on behalf of everyone and claimed everyone wished to play rather than sit in the dugout.

"Obviously, the weather has been threatening most of the games, and it's a decision that they've collectively taken. If it helps, it helps, but if you have serious rain, I don't know whether the extra hours are going to help. But as long as we can get a game with the extension... everyone wants to play a game of cricket rather than not play," Jayawardene said.

The Sri Lankan spoke about the terrific comeback MI had after losing 3 of their first 4 matches in the 18th edition of the league. He claimed that the winning streak of 6 wins helped them to stay alive in the tournament. Jayawardene added that the focus was to take one game at a time and was happy that their qualification was in their control.

"We were always in contention for the playoffs after we had that run. For us, it's good to start the tournament (again) and play cricket, the guys have been waiting for this, training has been pretty good, and just take one game at a time. It's in our control, it's a great position to be here," Jayawardene said in the press conference.

He then spoke about the message for the players, which was to follow the routines and processes they had so far in the tournament. The former T20 World Cup-winning captain claimed that MI deserved to be in the position where they were and felt the players would give their best in the remainder of the tournament.

"The message from me for the boys was to make sure that we go through our routines, our processes, the way we train, the way we plan, and the way we've gone about this tournament. It's better to have it in our control than anyone else's and watch that situation, so we've played good cricket to deserve to be in that situation, and we'll go out and try and play our best game of cricket tomorrow," Jayawardene added.