‘It was just a horrible day’ – GT coach Matthew Hayden lambasts poor batting display for defeat against MI

Gujarat Titans (GT) batting coach Matthew Hayden has criticised the batting collapse for their 99-run defeat at the hands of the Mumbai Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Monday, April 20. Chasing 200 in the second innings, the 2022 champions were bundled out for just 100 in less than 16 overs. 

Nothing went right for GT in Ahmedabad, which was acknowledged by Hayden after the game. The former Australian opener stated that seeing the middle order come out to bat early on within the powerplay is always a recipe for disaster, as it was on Monday.

GT lost their first two wickets for just five runs and later lost captain Shubman Gill before the completion of the first five overs. This resulted in the likes of Rahul Tewatia and Shahrukh Khan coming in way earlier than they are supposed to, since their role is that of finishers rather than scoring runs in the first 10 overs and building the innings. 

“It was just a horrible day for us today. Truth be told, there was nothing good about this day, really, apart from Rabada’s performance with the ball. So we’ve got some work to do, definitely,” Hayden was quoted as saying on NDTV.

“Well, middle order was undoubtedly exposed today. When they’re coming in with six overs, you know that you’re in deep trouble. The thing about the power plays is that you can’t win it from there, especially in a run chase, but you can definitely lose it, and we lost it in the power play. However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently taking the lion’s share of the batting. We shouldn’t be allowing Tiwu (Tewatia) or Shahrukh or these guys lots of balls. That’s not their role. That’s not what they train for,” Hayden added. 

GT were in excellent form coming into their game against MI before suffering a heavy defeat. They had won three games on the bounce before their poor show against the five-time champions on home soil. As things stand, they find themselves sixth in the standings with six points to their name.