MI Vs. DC: Mumbai Indians Discharge Deccans

iSport Cricket Paddock: Mumbai Indians have set a benchmark for other teams to follow said a rival team captain. iSporter Rajas Joshi only agrees.

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This time it was, even technically, Mumbai Indians’ home game against the Deccan Chargers. With the kind of cricket MI has been playing, there were no points for guessing who was expected to win.

It turned out to be just another day at the office for MI as they wrapped up the Chargers in convincing fashion, winning by 63 runs pushing their Net Run Rate further up (not that it would matter in their qualification) and opening up a gap of four points from Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils with six matches to go. This has almost confirmed a Semi-Final berth for the Mumbai Indians, who definitely seem to have more on their mind as Harbhajan pointed out, “We have bigger goals than to just qualify for the semis”.

Earlier in the day, the match between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals produced close to five hundred runs, with both teams easily crossing the 200-run mark. But the pitch at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai was nothing like the one in Chennai. It was a slow wicket assisting spin and making it difficult for the batsmen to hit on the up as the ball wasn’t really coming on to the bat. Hence after winning the toss Tendulkar decided to bat and set a target, knowing the pitch would only get slower as the game progressed, along with the fact that DC had stumbled while chasing against MI just five days back.

Mumbai got off to another flyer as Tendulkar took charge scoring a quick fire 35 which included his characteristic straight drive - Punch and Four! Deccan pulled things back as they took three wickets in quick succession and applied brakes on the scoring rate. Mumbai again turned to its local talent, Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu. Once more they did not disappoint and each made a match winning contribution. Tiwary who smashed three sixes, one more than his partner, made 44 (35 balls) while Rayudu scored a half-century finishing on 55 off only 29 deliveries.
Rayudu had got into a tangle with Adam Gilchrist while diving in to save himself from getting a run-out and to everyone’s surprise Gilchrist went on to thrust his gloves into Rayudu’s helmet. May be it was the frustration of not getting the run-out or the number of runs being scored. May be just the Australian in him showed its ugly face! Whatever it was, I will be surprised if he gets away without being penalised.

Pollard again played a cameo of 21 which helped MI get to 178; six runs more than what they comfortably defended against the Chargers last Sunday.

While defending this winning total, all the MI bowlers did their bit to bundle out DC for 115. Chasing such a huge total was always going to be monumental, but one expected the IPL-2 champions to put up a fight. It was a total team effort where everyone chipped in with wickets apart from Bravo, who also did his job costing only six runs per over. While Malinga got the final wicket, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Keiron Pollard and Ryan McLaren got two each.
As much as the versatility of this bowling attack is strikingly evident, I would still like to see another slower bowler in the playing eleven as the pitches are only going to get slower as the tournament reaches the knockout stages. Though everyone is contributing to the success and it seems to be the perfect combination, the next three games are probably the best chance to play the big names sitting on the bench, before the last three which can be played with the strongest combination to prepare for the Semi-Final.

The turning point of this match was again the last three overs while batting, from which MI squeezed forty three runs. What is commendable about this team is the fact that in several matches they have been in situations where they have lost a few quick wickets which understandably hampered their scoring rate for the next 3-4 overs. But MI has always fought back and went on to get a total their experienced bowlers could defend. This is the sign of a great team that does not seem to put a foot wrong and as Gilchrist rightly said, “Mumbai Indians have set a standard and are the benchmark for other teams to look up to”.