MI crawls .... the elite support staff - yeh T20 hai Boss !!!

Now we are hooked to IPL – tough to remember the teams and who plays for who – with so many transfers, yet !!

Yesterday, the star studded Royal Challengers with Gayle, Kohli, De Villiers  were the favourites – but were all out for a healthy 166 – with 5 wickets falling in the last 2 overs of Trent Boult and Bhuvaneshkumar.  The match was won by Sunrisers Hyderabad with ridiculous ease with half-centuries from David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan and a good innings by KL Rahul.  The first ball of Sunrisers' chase encapsulated the story that was about to unfold. Sean Abbott sent down a full-toss, and Warner simply met it with the full face of his bat to send it screaming away to the extra-cover boundary. By the end of the second over, Warner and Shikhar Dhawan had hit five more fours and a six, against Abbott and Harshal Patel. 

You may still remember the advertisement of  Pepsi for T20 World Cup 2012 – in that  commercial,  there were  Ranbir Kapoor, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina  together on - screen.  Pepsi was  the global sponsor of the event.   The Advt showed how people are crazy about T20.  Ranbir Kapoor tells Dhoni -  "Yeh T20 hai boss... na tameez se khela jaata hai... na tameez se dekha jaata hai!. – does it literally mean that Cricket is no longer a game.     

The Mumbai Indians,  one of the eight founding members of the IPL in 2008 is a star studded team, currently captained by Rohit Sharma.  The team won its first IPL title, in 2013, by defeating Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs in the final.  The team has the best support team managing the affairs  – coach is Ricky Ponting; Assistant and batting coach is Robin Singh, Bowling coach – Shane Bond; Fielding coach – Jonty Rhodes; Sachin Tendulkar is the Mentor;  another is Anil Kumble; there is talent scout John Wright besides the Physio, Trainer, Nutritionist, Masseur, Video Analyst and the like !!!

Today, with the batting line up of Aaron Finch, Unmukht Chand,  Rohit Sharma, Corey Anderson, and Kieron Pollard – they were 45/3 after 10 overs, yes after 60 legal deliveries.  At the end of 15 they were 83/3

The Mumbai Indians have played two matches but are yet to get their first points on the board. They lost to the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the season opener and then came a cropper in the match against Kings XI Punjab; the margin of defeat in that match might only read 18 runs, but in reality MI were never in the contest after being reduced to 59 for 6 in their pursuit of 178.   Reduced to 17 for 3 at the end of the first six overs, it was going to be a herculean task for MI to get back into the contest.  At one stage they had been reduced to 59/6 – wickets falling can happen to any team but in that match too – at the end of 10 overs [half-time] they were 32/4  with 146 required from 60 balls. 

One really felt that someone should shout ‘yeh T20 boss !’

…… but as things could unfold, they have finished at 164 with Pollard scoring 70 off 34 balls and Anderson 50 off 38.   Will Rajasthan Royals chase and win ?

With regards – S.Sampathkumar

14^th Apr 2015 @ 21:40 hrs.