MUMBAI’S MISERY CONTINUES!

The Mumbai Indians poor run in the IPL continues , thanks to good Bowling effort by Delhi DareDevils. The Mumbai Indians who opted to bat after winning the toss, surprised every one by resting Sanath Jayasurya and made Luke Ronchi  and J.P. Duminy to open the innings. The Decision to make Tendulkar bat at no. 4 backfired when Luke Ronchi was run out in the second ball of the innings and Duminy followed in the same over caught by the Wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik , both back without tickling the score board. The Onus was on the Maestro to post a big total. Tendulkar started well with 2 good Boundaries , but his runout could only add insult to the injury for the Mumbai Indians.

Rajat Bhatia

Pinal shah followed Tendulkar soon ,his inexperience clearly shown. The carribean calypso Bravo and ever Dependable Abhishek nayar offered some resistance, putting on a 53 run partnership, with bravo making the bigger contribution. Just when Bravo seemed to change the fortunes of the Mumbai Indian’s , Dirk Nannes picked  his wicket, caught by karthik. Since then, the Batting side was never in the game with wickets falling at regular intervals. They finally crumbled to 116 in the last ball of the innings. Rajat Bhatiya was the pick of the bowlers picking up 3 wickets for 15 runs in 4 overs.

Just when the game looked a cakewalk for Delhi daredevils , Mumbai Indians had different plans. Good Bowling effort by the pacemen never let the run rate creep up above 6. Harbhajan Singh and J.P.Duminy brought the Indians back into the game by picking up both openers and giving away very little. Good bowling and fielding effort , put the Daredevils in a spot of bother with around 9 r.p.o needing in last 5 overs. Then came a spoiler over from Sachin Tendulkar who gave away 17 runs in the over with all 4 boundaries scored in the same region. Since then, Winning was a mere formality for the DareDevils. DareDevils won by 7 wickets with 1 over to spare. AB Devillers top scored with an unbeaten 38 ball 50. Surprisingly, Ashish Nehra was awarded the Man of the Match for his spell of 2/27 in 4 overs.

The Mumbai Indians need to get their Batting right and play out of their skins, if they need to survive in the tournament.