'We will always fight through': How MI's winning mentality showed in IPL 2025 Eliminator win over GT – Firstpost

Mumbai Indians (MI) are one of the most successful teams in IPL history. They proved this again on Friday, when they defeated Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2025 Eliminator and kept their hopes of winning a record-breaking sixth title alive. The team will now face Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2, and if they win that, they will reach the final.
MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene has said that a big reason behind the team’s strong mindset is their core of senior Indian players like Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, and Suryakumar Yadav. He said that the team has a winning culture and that comes mainly from those who have been part of MI for years.
Jayawardene explained that it’s easier to carry forward a winning culture when you already have experienced players who know how to handle pressure and win games in tough situations. In MI’s do-or-die game against GT, senior players like Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah stepped up and delivered when it mattered the most.
Mumbai Indians scored a big total of 228/5 against Gujarat Titans, with Rohit Sharma playing a brilliant knock of 81 runs. But in the second innings, Mumbai found themselves in some trouble. After losing a couple of early wickets, Gujarat batters started to settle in and made the chase look possible.
Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar built an important partnership and MI were badly in need of a wicket. That is when Jasprit Bumrah came back into the attack and gave Mumbai a big breakthrough by removing Sundar.
“Well, when you have a winning culture, it is easier to try and have that same thing going through. Even when you get a new group, we still have a very experienced co-group within our ranks. So, the conversations that we have, planning and everything is about, how can we get better, how can we push through,” he said.
“That winning mentality itself comes through from those senior players and having that experience, guys who have won trophies does help and my job is to try and cultivate that for the new guys who are coming into the spot,” Jayawardene added.
The former Sri Lanka captain said that the conversations within the team are always about how to get better and how to push through tough situations. Jayawardene added that his role is to pass on that mentality to the new players who joined after the big auction this year.
“After the big auction, we had quite a few new faces, but I think telling them about the history of Mumbai and how we go, how we operate and have that attitude that we will never die from a situation, we will always fight through. So, I think that is shown today,” Jayawardene said.
Mumbai Indians are now just one step away from another IPL 2025 final. If they beat Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2 on Sunday (1 June), they will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final on 3 June. MI reached Qualifier 2 after a 20-run win over GT on Friday. MI had finished fourth on the IPL 2025 points table.
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