Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene said that they were always strong contenders for playoff qualification.

Mumbai Indians were “always in contention” of making the IPL playoffs after their six-match winning run earlier in the season and the team deserves to be in a position to decide its own fate, said head coach Mahela Jayawardene on Tuesday.

The five-time IPL winners will need a win against Delhi Capitals here on Wednesday to book the fourth and final spot in the playoffs, with Gujarat Titans, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings being the other three. However, a loss will mean MI will have to depend on the outcome of the contest between DC and PBKS on May 24.

“We were always in contention for 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. 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.” Jayawardene told the media during MI’s training.

“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,” he added.

With additional time of one hour being added to all matches from Tuesday to the playing conditions, Jayawardene said in case of serious rain it still might not help.

“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 added.

Jayawardene did not speak much on the fact that England and South Africa players are set to leave the IPL before the playoffs begin.

“The same is going to happen for most of those teams which have qualified already. They’re going to be in the same situation so I haven’t thought that far ahead. We’ve obviously named the three guys that we’re looking at to bring. Two of them (Richard Gleeson and Charith Asalanka) are already here. I think Jonny (Bairstow) will arrive tomorrow (Wednesday),” he said

With MI facing a must-win situation, Jayawardene likened it to what they faced earlier in the competition.

“We were in that situation when we were 4-1 after five matches. For us, every game was a must-win from that situation (and) the boys reacted pretty well. Even the last game against GT, we gave ourselves a great opportunity. We fought really well after the mistakes we’ve done, so cricket-wise, I’m not worried. The brand of cricket that we’re playing, reacting to situations,” he added.