“The Boat Was Sinking”: Matthew Hayden Rues Middle-Order Collapse in “Terrible” Performance Against MI

Matthew Hayden (Image: GT)

Mumbai Indians (MI) snapped their four-match losing streak with a thumping 99-run victory over the Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium. The architect with the bat was Tilak Varma, whose blistering 101 not out off 45 balls catapulted MI to a competitive 199/5. With the ball, the night belonged to Ashwani Kumar, who ripped through the GT lineup with figures of 4/24, bundling them out for a paltry 100 in just 15.5 overs.

MI’s innings was a game of two halves. Reeling at 103 for 4 after 14 overs, they found their hero in Tilak. The final four overs yielded a staggering 73 runs against GT’s pace attack, a phase GT Assistant Coach Matthew Hayden frankly described as “unacceptable.”

“I feel like ‘one-dimensional’ is very unfair on a world-class bowling attack, but I will take on board it was a poorly executed bowling effort this evening,” Hayden admitted in the post-match press conference. 

“When you look back at those last four overs, that was just a horror story. You know, 73 off the last four is unacceptable for world-class players.”

Hayden was effusive in his praise for Tilak’s counterattack on an uneven, black-soil pitch, comparing it to an old fisherman’s tale. “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 noted. “We all know that they’re a dangerous side… and we definitely blinked. And when you blink against a world-class player like Tilak Varma, even on a wicket that’s kind of spicy, that was our downfall. It was a dominant performance down the ground.”

For the Mumbai Indians, the victory was a massive sigh of relief, lifting them from the bottom of the table to the seventh spot and improving their Net Run Rate to +0.067. Despite four back-to-back defeats preceding this clash, the dressing room atmosphere remained upbeat as per Ashwani.

“We were looking at where we went wrong and just followed what our coaches were telling us,” Ashwani said. “Our mindset wasn’t low just because we were losing. The team environment was actually very good and positive.”

The young left-arm seamer, who waited in the wings for the first five matches, credited his simple preparation process behind the scenes. “I was working on my yorkers, working on my swing, and just waiting for my opportunity to do well,” Ashwani revealed with a smile. “Other than that, I was just going to the temple.”

Reading the pitch perfectly was crucial for Ashwani’s success against the GT batting lineup. “It’s black soil, so our plan was that the ball would stay a bit low,” he explained. “We had seen the wicket on the first day itself, and the ball was doing a bit. The plan was to hit the length as the wicket demanded, and we got success by doing just that.”

Chasing 200, GT suffered an immediate top-order collapse, exposing their middle order far too early – a vulnerability Hayden did not shy away from addressing.

“The middle order was undoubtedly exposed today. You know, when they’re coming in with six overs left, you know that you’re in deep trouble,” Hayden stated. Elaborating on the specific roles within the batting unit, he defended the aggressive metrics of middle-order batters but stressed they shouldn’t be facing the bulk of the innings.

“We shouldn’t be allowing Rahul Tewatia or Shahrukh Khan or these guys lots of balls. That’s not their role, that’s not what they train for,” he said. “If you’re getting seven balls and you’re striking at 180, you’re having a hell of a season. See, those numbers seem ridiculous if you’re looking for aggregates and averages… But the relevance behind balls faced is key. We need an upfront batting effort where our first three players take the lion’s share of the batting.”

Reflecting on a brutal 99-run loss that kept GT in the sixth spot with a 3-3 record, the assistant coach did not mince words. “You can’t be sitting here and being happy about a 100-run margin game in a 20-over game. That is an unacceptable scorecard for our batting unit… We’ve got to be just a lot better than where we were today. That was a terrible performance.”

With Tilak’s explosive maiden IPL century and Ashwani’s calculated hostility, MI have breathed new life into their IPL 2026 campaign. For the Gujarat Titans, it’s back to the drawing board to ensure their top order doesn’t leave their designated finishers adrift at sea.

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