Not MI skipper Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma's Retire Out decision against LSG was taken by THIS man

Tilak Varma, who was playing at a low expected strike rate against Lucknow Super Giants was retired out in the death over when Mumbai Indians were chasing a 204-run target. He was sent back to the pavilion when MI needed 24 runs in 7 balls, and Tilak was finding it difficult to score runs quickly. MI fans speculated that skipper Hardik Pandya took this decision in the death overs to give a fresh start with Mitchell Santner, but he was not the one to make this call. Mumbai Indians' head coach Mahela Jayawardene talked about this decision and called it a 'tactical' one.

Why did Jayawardene take this decision?

The head coach of MI outlined the reason behind his decision and said a 'fresh' face was needed when the asking rate showed signs of escalating into the realm of unattainability. Tilak batted well for us when we lost that (third) wicket and that partnership with Surya. He wanted to get going but just couldn't and waited till the last few overs hoping; because you spent some time, you should have been able to get that hit out of the way. But I felt that in the end, I just needed someone fresh to have a go when he was struggling. These things happen in cricket, and it was not nice to take him out, but I had to do that. That was a tactical decision at that point," Jayawardene said in the post-match press conference.

''With the experience that he has, he realised that this [bowling slow and back of length] is what he probably needs to do because we did leak too many runs in the powerplay. We just needed to take a bit of pace off, which we should have done in the powerplay as well. I think that's why these guys are experienced; they adapt to conditions pretty well, see what the opportunities present, and he definitely, with the ball, he pulled the game back for us and gave us a pretty decent chance of chasing this total," Jayawardene added.

LSG vs MI match

Batting first, Lucknow Super Giants put 203 runs in 20 overs with two wickets remaining. LSG managed out over 200 runs on board with the blistering knocks from Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram's opening partnership and a high-voltage cameo from Ayush Badoni and Naman Dhir in the middle order.

Chasing 204, Mumbai Indians lost two wickets in Powerplay but managed to score according to the required rate against LSG. The 19th and 20th over from Shardul Thakur and Avesh Khan took the game away from MI and LSG clinched the game by 12 runs in the end.