Punjab thrills…Mumbai spills

As it turned out it was once again The Dew Vs Mumbai Indians. The dew factor has scared. Harbhajan so much that once again he opted to bowl after winning the toss.

The Punjab Kings seeking to open their account in this tournament seized the opportunity with both hands.

A standout performance with the bat from Kumar Sangakkara ensured that the team could notch up a very challenging score.

When the Mumbai Indians came out to bat the prevailing belief was they had a good chance of chasing it down and winning, what turned their plan upside down was probably their memory of the match against Chennai and the ease with which they knocked down 200 odd runs but what they did not take into account was the difference in the bowling attack.

Punjab Kings had one Mr Brett Lee who had other ideas and in a fast and furious opening spell knocked over 2 wickets and conceded a meager 5 runs in 2 overs.

If the start was bad there was worse to follow for the visitors, Piyush Chawla who was introduced in the 7th over, strangled the duo of Dwayne Bravo and Robin Uthappa, who were doing a fair job of resurrecting the innings by bowling his 4 overs on the trot, picking up 2 wickets and conceding 16 runs.

Chawla’s introduction could be termed as a brilliant move on the part of the captain or a ploy to bowl him before the dew set in, whatever be the motive it broke the back of the visitors and from thereon it was a downhill journey for the Mumbai Indians and for the Punjab Kings the smiles emerged, broadened and remained.

The Punjab Kings displayed a lot more intensity especially Brett Lee, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena, this augurs well for the team as their young captain needs all the support he can get to take this team forward.

Yuvraj Singh is a fantastic batsman and brilliant fielder but has no record to show as a captain and commanding respect on the field from such a diverse set of players is a tough ask, the support of the overseas pros becomes all the more important in this context.

As Harbhajan said during the presentation ceremony “captaincy is tough when you are losing and not when you are winning”.

The Super Kings do a Houdini

The best match of the tournament. It was riveting stuff and had all the ingredients of a nail biter with a fairy tale ending for the home team and its hordes of supporters.

What saved the day for the Super Kings was probably the dew.

Mumbai Indians won the toss and would have batted but for the threat of the dew, batting first against a team like the Chennai Super Kings gives the opportunity to go after their bowling which is their weak area and also prevent their strong batting from running up 200 + scores.

The batting line-up did justice to their reputation and ran up yet another 200 + score and from thereon Mumbai was on the back foot. Despite this it was a fantastic effort from the Mumbai team with their stand in captain infusing his teammates with the never say die spirit he is known for.

Mumbai was also in the hunt due to the paucity in the Super Kings bowling attack.

Bowling is an important component, even in T20 cricket, as was amply demonstrated by Shane Warne for the Rajasthan Royals and then Mohammad Asif and Rajat Bhatia for the Delhi Daredevils in the last couple of days.

The Chennai team was found wanting in this area.

A team needs more than 5 regular bowlers.

In today’s match 3 of the 5 Super Kings bowlers bled runs, Murali averaged 11 runs per over, Jacob Oram 14 and Palani Amarnath 15, Chennai had no choice but to bowl their full quota as the sixth or seventh bowler were the likes of Raina and Badrinath who can bowl off spin but the conditions would not have favored them.

The Chennai think tank needs to quickly address this if they are to book a place in the semis.

- Mahesh Packiaraj (The Viper)