From the iSport Cricket Paddock: iSporter Rajas Joshi pens his post-match analysis on the MI vs CSK IPL Final.
As we have seen many times in the past, the team that has played unmatched quality of sport in a whole tournament ends up losing that all important final. This is exactly what happened to the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2010. IPL 2010’s most consistent team versus IPL history’s most consistent; it was a match worthy of a final. Both teams did not let the viewers down as we witnessed good performances overall.
CSK winning the toss elected to bat and were scoring at less than six runs an over till the twelfth over. Just as MI seemed in total control they dropped Raina – who went on to be the player of the match – twice in quick succession. CSK did not look back from there and posted a mammoth 168. It was a massive total to be chasing in a final on a slow wicket with three regular spinners in the opposition. But if there was a team you would back to chase it down, it had to be MI with the kind of cricket they have played this year.
A very slow start meant the run rate had crossed the ten run mark in no time. But no one was willing to write Mumbai off as Sachin Tendulkar was still at the crease and a lot of fire power was to follow. Unfortunately it did not fire in the final. Tendulkar made a valiant 48 not showing any signs of discomfort with the stitches on his hand, but got out caught just inside the boundary while looking to accelerate. It would be fair to say that he did not receive the kind of support he was looking for from the other end as the pressure of the final seemed to have got to Dhawan and Nayar. With 55 runs needed in 18 balls Keiron Pollard came in, and the fact that even now MI had a fairly realistic chance of getting those runs is a reflection of what Pollard is capable of. But even he couldn’t manage it this time and MI lost the final to the Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings by 22 runs. Dhoni needs to be lauded here, not so much for the field setting that has been talked about, but for the calmness and composure he displayed in high pressure situations. Let’s just hope he lifts another trophy in less than three weeks time.
There has been a lot of flak the Mumbai Indians ‘think tank’ has received since the loss. “Why was Harbhajan sent up the order?” “Why was Pollard warming the bench for 17 overs?” “Why did Nayar come at three” and many more.
I heard the talks of the IPL final being ‘fixed’ too, but I will not even bother to address this hogwash. Before the IPL started a journalist with a reputed newspaper told me that the IPL was already fixed and Kolkata Knight Riders were going to win it!
Coming back to the criticisms, I would like to tell all my cricketing “experts” that it is all very simple to talk when the action is over. As Rahul Dravid had said after the Multan Test match in which he declared the innings when Tendulkar was 194 not out, “Retrospection is a beautiful thing. If I had known that the Test would finish in four days I would have not declared then”. Would the reactions have been similar had Harbhajan whacked a couple sixes? Had Pollard not smashed those two sixes and got out of the first ball he faced? Had Nayar played another vital innings for MI?
People who are talking about Nayar probably do not know his ability to clear the ropes. Yes he did not perform in this match but that does not by any means make him a bad player. He may have lacked match practice due to his injury but with his recent performances at the domestic circuit and the last two IPL seasons he was still the best bet to play in the final as compared to the other local players in the squad.
As the statisticians work the math to find out the ‘Most Valuable Player’, analyse who was and was not ‘Worth the Price’ and create the ‘IPL 2010 XI’, I take this opportunity to congratulate the Mumbai Indians team. Mumbai had a great run leading up to the final and we, die-hard Mumbai Indians’ supporters, are proud of the way MI has played throughout this tournament which we will remember for a long time. Thank you Mumbai Indians, it was a pleasure to watch you play remarkable cricket and we hope to watch a similar display in the Champions League T20 in South Africa in September. And that time... “Duniya Hila Denge Hum!”
CSK winning the toss elected to bat and were scoring at less than six runs an over till the twelfth over. Just as MI seemed in total control they dropped Raina – who went on to be the player of the match – twice in quick succession. CSK did not look back from there and posted a mammoth 168. It was a massive total to be chasing in a final on a slow wicket with three regular spinners in the opposition. But if there was a team you would back to chase it down, it had to be MI with the kind of cricket they have played this year.
A very slow start meant the run rate had crossed the ten run mark in no time. But no one was willing to write Mumbai off as Sachin Tendulkar was still at the crease and a lot of fire power was to follow. Unfortunately it did not fire in the final. Tendulkar made a valiant 48 not showing any signs of discomfort with the stitches on his hand, but got out caught just inside the boundary while looking to accelerate. It would be fair to say that he did not receive the kind of support he was looking for from the other end as the pressure of the final seemed to have got to Dhawan and Nayar. With 55 runs needed in 18 balls Keiron Pollard came in, and the fact that even now MI had a fairly realistic chance of getting those runs is a reflection of what Pollard is capable of. But even he couldn’t manage it this time and MI lost the final to the Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings by 22 runs. Dhoni needs to be lauded here, not so much for the field setting that has been talked about, but for the calmness and composure he displayed in high pressure situations. Let’s just hope he lifts another trophy in less than three weeks time.
There has been a lot of flak the Mumbai Indians ‘think tank’ has received since the loss. “Why was Harbhajan sent up the order?” “Why was Pollard warming the bench for 17 overs?” “Why did Nayar come at three” and many more.
I heard the talks of the IPL final being ‘fixed’ too, but I will not even bother to address this hogwash. Before the IPL started a journalist with a reputed newspaper told me that the IPL was already fixed and Kolkata Knight Riders were going to win it!
Coming back to the criticisms, I would like to tell all my cricketing “experts” that it is all very simple to talk when the action is over. As Rahul Dravid had said after the Multan Test match in which he declared the innings when Tendulkar was 194 not out, “Retrospection is a beautiful thing. If I had known that the Test would finish in four days I would have not declared then”. Would the reactions have been similar had Harbhajan whacked a couple sixes? Had Pollard not smashed those two sixes and got out of the first ball he faced? Had Nayar played another vital innings for MI?
People who are talking about Nayar probably do not know his ability to clear the ropes. Yes he did not perform in this match but that does not by any means make him a bad player. He may have lacked match practice due to his injury but with his recent performances at the domestic circuit and the last two IPL seasons he was still the best bet to play in the final as compared to the other local players in the squad.
As the statisticians work the math to find out the ‘Most Valuable Player’, analyse who was and was not ‘Worth the Price’ and create the ‘IPL 2010 XI’, I take this opportunity to congratulate the Mumbai Indians team. Mumbai had a great run leading up to the final and we, die-hard Mumbai Indians’ supporters, are proud of the way MI has played throughout this tournament which we will remember for a long time. Thank you Mumbai Indians, it was a pleasure to watch you play remarkable cricket and we hope to watch a similar display in the Champions League T20 in South Africa in September. And that time... “Duniya Hila Denge Hum!”
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