The Mumbai Indians dealt a body blow on Delhi’s semi final ambitions by dishing out a 39-run drubbing to the visitors. The star of the match for Sachin Tendulkar’s Indians was Kieron Pollard. After a blazing unbeaten 45 off 13 deliveries with the bat, the big man from Caribbean returned an economical figure of 0 for 15 in his four overs and affected two brilliant run-outs.
Chasing 183, David Warner (31) and Virender Sehwag (20) got Delhi off to a flier scoring 39 in 3.3 overs. Warner did all the damage in his 15-ball 31, charging through covers, going over long-on and driving through mid-off. In the third over, Warner carted Zaheer Khan for two fours and a six with a fine flick, a heave straight down the ground and a well controlled pull. But the party ended when the Aussie opener holed out to Murtaza off a smart slower-one by Dilhara Fernando.
Fernando almost got Sehwag out with another slower-one after a couple of balls but this time Murtaza grassed a dolly. But the young left-arm spinner made amends very soon by getting rid of Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir (17). Sehwag soon followed him in the pavilion, running himself out in the same over. Murtaza produced a fine quicker delivery in his next over to send AB de Villiers (4) back into the hut.
Delhi’s cause was dealt another big blow when Paul Collingwood (2) ran himself out going for an inexplicable run. After a brilliant effort to send Sehwag back, this time Pollard demonstrated brilliant field-work off his own bowling. After a blistering 69 for 1 in the first six overs, the Daredevils slipped to 94 for 6 after 12 overs, from where it proved impossible to recover.
While all the bowlers contributed their bit, the bowling hero for Mumbai Indians was young spinner Ali Murtaza, who bowled with a lot of guile and confidence. He mixed up his deliveries well to keep the batsmen guessing and hardly gave any width to hit big shots. Murtaza’s four-over spell yielded only 18 runs for the important scalps of de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik (11). Dilhara Fernando too was impressive picking two wickets in his spell for 32 runs. Such was the discipline in Mumbai’s bowling that after the sixth over, they conceded a boundary in the last over.
Earlier, after being restricted to 133 for 4 in 17 overs, Kieron Pollard’s 13-ball blitzkriegs of 45 runs took Mumbai Indians to a highly competitive 183 for 4 at the end of 20 overs. Pollard’s fiery knock was studded with two boundaries and five mammoth sixes.
Ashish Nehra and Pradeep Sangwan bowled a fine opening spell, pitching the ball in all right areas. But luck deserted the two Delhi pacers as on various occasions the ball raced to the fence taking an edge of the bat. Both Chandan Madan (15) and Sachin Tendulkar (30) got the rub of the green going their way. Amit Mishra cramped the batsmen with his tight bowling and McDonald took advantage of it by dismissing Madan with a short ball in his first over.
Tendulkar, on the other hand, looked like a man with intent. Despite the superb bowling, he played some lovely flicks and sweeps in the initial overs. Thanks to his fluency, Mumbai could muster 44 runs in the powerplay. Sangwan finally got rewarded for his persistently impressive bowling when he got the prized wicket of the master blaster. It was a rather soft dismissal as Tendulkar sliced a simple catch to mid-off in his attempt to score a much needed boundary.
Tendulkar’s wicket brought Mumbai’s two young superstars, Saurabh Tiwary (38) and Ambati Rayudu (24) together, with a huge responsibility of reviving the innings. The two batted sensibly, playing their respective roles to perfection. While Tiwary paced up the innings with some lusty blows, Rayudu played the perfect anchor. The long-haired Samson-like power hitter from Jharkhand slog-swept Collingwood for a massive heave over midwicket before smashing a four and a six in Sangwan’s next over. But the 19-year-old bowler had the last laugh when he deceived Tiwary with a slower one which rattled his stumps.
JP Duminy (21) cut loose by whacking Mishra for three boundaries in the 16th over with a flick, a thumping drive and a lucky edge. Rayudu decided to take charge on Nehra in the next over by lofting him over long-on but holed out to de Villiers. But Kieron Pollard stepped on the gas to fetch 50 runs in the last three overs. He started his six-hitting spree with a thwack over long-off and scooped over the keeper’s head.
The big man from Caribbean then cornered McDonald in the last over to cream him for 25 runs. He set two balls scorching in the stands beyond the midwicket fence, thumped one straight down the ground and clobbered the last delivery over square-leg.
Showing posts with label Delhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delhi. Show all posts
On paper, this clash is as heavy-weight as they come. It features not only two of the top sides in the tournament, but also has India's favourite son - Sachin Tendulkar - taking on the man who is most likely to be his heir apparent - Virender Sehwag.
In reality, however, Mumbai come into this match on a high, while Delhi are struggling slightly with two losses against teams they would have expected to beat.
Mumbai have 16 points, and no other team has more than 12. The only way Mumbai will not qualify for the semi-finals is if there is a multiple team tie on 16 points (since at this stage there is no combination possible that will ensure that four teams end up with morethan 16 points), and the others edge Mumbai out on net run-rate. When you consider that Mumbai's net run-rate is +1.04, and the next highest net run-rate is Bangalore's +0.343, it is pretty clear that short of a whole host of statistical freaks, Mumbai are well and truly into the semi-finals.
They can thus afford to experiment and tweak their side in an effort to put the best combination out for the knock-out matches. It might be worth their while to give Graham Napier a chance and get Dwayne Bravo back into the mix. Napier comes with a domestic T20 strike rate of almost 150, and is a handy right-arm medium pace bowler, while if Bravo can get his batting going, he will be an invaluable all-rounder. In fact, Mumbai may want to bench quite a few of their regulars - especially amongst the foreigners - and give chances to those haven't had too many. We might well see Mumbai picking JP Duminy, Sanath Jayasuriya, Napier/McLaren and Bravo for the match, and giving a well deserved break to the likes of Malinga. The young Abhishek Nayar seems to have finally recovered from the injury that kept him out of most of the tournament, and if fit, he too should get a game. Mumbai's biggest disappointment so far has been the performance of Kieron Pollard, who has struck the ball hard and fiercely, but hasn't managed to stay at the crease to have any major impact on a match, with a highest score of 25 in ten innings.
Sachin Tendulkar continues to remain the main man for Mumbai, with almost twice as many runs as the next highest scorer in the side - Saurabh Tiwary. He is of course, capable of firing in all of Mumbai's remaining matches, but on the suspicion that the 'law of averages' must catch up with the man sometime (after only sporadically doing so over 20 years of international cricket), Mumbai have to start planning for how to win in case Tendulkar fails.
Delhi have more pressing worries on their mind than one man winning all their matches - they have to start winning matches again first. The defeats against Kolkata and Punjab will hurt them, since before those matches, they were on a winning streak and had looked one of the few sides capable of consistently challenging Mumbai. Delhi's best batsman has been Virender Sehwag, but a lot of his efforts have been in solo causes, with the rest of the team not supporting him, with the result that victories of Sehwag's bat have been rather lesser in number than would be expected - especially when Delhi have such good back-up for Sehwag on paper.
David Warner will always remain a hit-or-miss player, and Gautam Gambhir has made it clear on numerous occasions that that is the way Delhi want him to be, since on the days he comes off, he is an unstoppable force for Delhi. However, Gambhir himeslf, alongwith Collingwood and Dinesh Karthik have to play the role of middle-order enforcers, who do the bulk of the scoring when the openers fail. What hurt Delhi in their last two matches was that the middle order did not get going. With an opening combination of Warner and Sehwag, Delhi can expect fliers more often than not, but have to budget for the occasional failure as well.
The one good thing for Delhi was that Ashish Nehra finally recovered enough to play a game, and if Dirk Nannes recovers too then he will come in place of Ferveez Maharoof, which would strengthen Delhi's pace attack immeasurably. Daniel Vettori has been a bit of a let-down so far, leaking runs at 8.31 an over and taking just 2 wickets in the 3 matches he has played, but for a player of such proven ability, he is likely to be part of the starting eleven.
A full-strength Delhi against an in-form Mumbai is one of the marquee matches of the IPL. However, the last time these two sides met, Mumbai annihilated Delhi by 98 runs. Delhi should come fired up to exact revenge, and Mumbai will be equally keyed up, especially on their home ground. A potentially cracking contest looms.
In reality, however, Mumbai come into this match on a high, while Delhi are struggling slightly with two losses against teams they would have expected to beat.
Mumbai have 16 points, and no other team has more than 12. The only way Mumbai will not qualify for the semi-finals is if there is a multiple team tie on 16 points (since at this stage there is no combination possible that will ensure that four teams end up with morethan 16 points), and the others edge Mumbai out on net run-rate. When you consider that Mumbai's net run-rate is +1.04, and the next highest net run-rate is Bangalore's +0.343, it is pretty clear that short of a whole host of statistical freaks, Mumbai are well and truly into the semi-finals.
They can thus afford to experiment and tweak their side in an effort to put the best combination out for the knock-out matches. It might be worth their while to give Graham Napier a chance and get Dwayne Bravo back into the mix. Napier comes with a domestic T20 strike rate of almost 150, and is a handy right-arm medium pace bowler, while if Bravo can get his batting going, he will be an invaluable all-rounder. In fact, Mumbai may want to bench quite a few of their regulars - especially amongst the foreigners - and give chances to those haven't had too many. We might well see Mumbai picking JP Duminy, Sanath Jayasuriya, Napier/McLaren and Bravo for the match, and giving a well deserved break to the likes of Malinga. The young Abhishek Nayar seems to have finally recovered from the injury that kept him out of most of the tournament, and if fit, he too should get a game. Mumbai's biggest disappointment so far has been the performance of Kieron Pollard, who has struck the ball hard and fiercely, but hasn't managed to stay at the crease to have any major impact on a match, with a highest score of 25 in ten innings.
Sachin Tendulkar continues to remain the main man for Mumbai, with almost twice as many runs as the next highest scorer in the side - Saurabh Tiwary. He is of course, capable of firing in all of Mumbai's remaining matches, but on the suspicion that the 'law of averages' must catch up with the man sometime (after only sporadically doing so over 20 years of international cricket), Mumbai have to start planning for how to win in case Tendulkar fails.
Delhi have more pressing worries on their mind than one man winning all their matches - they have to start winning matches again first. The defeats against Kolkata and Punjab will hurt them, since before those matches, they were on a winning streak and had looked one of the few sides capable of consistently challenging Mumbai. Delhi's best batsman has been Virender Sehwag, but a lot of his efforts have been in solo causes, with the rest of the team not supporting him, with the result that victories of Sehwag's bat have been rather lesser in number than would be expected - especially when Delhi have such good back-up for Sehwag on paper.
David Warner will always remain a hit-or-miss player, and Gautam Gambhir has made it clear on numerous occasions that that is the way Delhi want him to be, since on the days he comes off, he is an unstoppable force for Delhi. However, Gambhir himeslf, alongwith Collingwood and Dinesh Karthik have to play the role of middle-order enforcers, who do the bulk of the scoring when the openers fail. What hurt Delhi in their last two matches was that the middle order did not get going. With an opening combination of Warner and Sehwag, Delhi can expect fliers more often than not, but have to budget for the occasional failure as well.
The one good thing for Delhi was that Ashish Nehra finally recovered enough to play a game, and if Dirk Nannes recovers too then he will come in place of Ferveez Maharoof, which would strengthen Delhi's pace attack immeasurably. Daniel Vettori has been a bit of a let-down so far, leaking runs at 8.31 an over and taking just 2 wickets in the 3 matches he has played, but for a player of such proven ability, he is likely to be part of the starting eleven.
A full-strength Delhi against an in-form Mumbai is one of the marquee matches of the IPL. However, the last time these two sides met, Mumbai annihilated Delhi by 98 runs. Delhi should come fired up to exact revenge, and Mumbai will be equally keyed up, especially on their home ground. A potentially cracking contest looms.
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