GOD Shows the Way: Mumbai Regain Top Spot

Posted by Rajnikant in IPL on 03 23rd, 2010 | no responses

sachine (2) Yesterday’s match was important for both teams. Kolkata had suffered two consecutive defeats and Bangalore crushed Mumabi in their last match. So for Kolkata this match was very important to keep them in a race for semifinal spot and for Mumbai they needed to win a game and start building the momentum again. In this crucial game Mumbai executed their game plan cleverly and end up winning an encounter by 7 wickets. This win ensured a top spot for Mumbai in points table.

Pitch was looking good for batting. So batting first was obvious choice for Dada. Inclusion of dangerous Gayle in line-up has strengthened Kolkata batting. But this time Mumbai had prepared well to restrict Gayle and Dada – who opened an inning for the first time this season. With the length MI bowlers were bowling, Kolkata openers were finding it difficult to play their natural strokes. Kolkata was70-0 in 11 over with Gayle and Dada on crease shows how well Mumbai bowlers restricted the Gayle’s power hitting.

Harbhajan provided first breakthrough by getting rid of Dada. Dada gave away his wicket again when it was time to put his foot on accelerator. After that Owais Shah started accelerating the score but surprisingly on the other side Gayle was not in aggressive mode. But after 15th over Gayle too changed his gears and joined the party by hitting Zahir Khan for 2 fours and a six.. Through out the inning Mumbai bowlers kept it tight. Kolkata managed to put 155 runs on board with help of 75 from Gayle.

In last two games, Kolkata started well but failed to accelerate and capitalize on good start. T20 is not the game where you wait for bowlers to bowl bad deliveries. In this format one need to be innovative and adjust his techniques and shots so that he can score boundaries even on good deliveries. That’s what Kolkata and especially Dada is lacking at the moment.

For MI local lad Shikhar Dhawan set the platform in very first over by scoring 12 runs. Sachin was in good touch; Ishant Sharma was the first one to get a treatment from Sachin’s hand. Ishant must consider him lucky as he and Sachin play International cricket from same team. Mumbai reached fastest team fifty in this year’s IPL off just 26 balls. Sachin just took game away from Kolkata by scoring 71 runs from 48 balls. Saurav Tiwary also chipped in with his 30. The diving one handed catch by Dada sent promoted Pollard home but for Kolkata it was too little and too late. Satish and Sachin completed formality of winning the match by 7 wickets.

Sachin was awarded Man of the Match. It was nice to see Sachin in good nick. With 71* against Kolkata, Sachin became 3^rd highest run getter in IPL-3 and is now in the race for orange cap.

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