One might say Mumbai Indians lost a match they had in the bag. But then it is important to remember that since winning their first game convincingly on April 18, they had not played a game, suffering a washout against Rajasthan Royals when the momentum was really with them.
On the contrary, Deccan Chargers won both their games and charged up under Adam Gilchrist, much the same way Sachin Tendulkar’s presence from game one has buoyed Mumbai Indians. Interestingly, the similarity did not end there. Look at some of the match-ups between the two teams and you will be surprised.
Sachin-Gibbs, Jayasuriya-Gilchrist, Bravo-Dwayne Smith, Abhishek Nayar-Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan-RP Singh, Lasith Malinga-Fidel Edwards, Harbhajan Singh-Pragyan Ojha, Shikhar Dhawan-Ravi Teja.
The bowling department was one area that Mumbai Indians had the edge. Both had five regular bowlers but if you look at the bowlers from both sides you will know what I exactly mean. In fact, Scott Styris was Deccan Chargers’ most successful bowler with five wickets from two games. He was, however, out of the XI and that made their bowling weaker.
It is too early to judge the two teams but Deccan Chargers must be a happy side with their three main batsmen – Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs and Rohit Sharma -- finding form early on in the tournament. For Mumbai Indians, Jayasuriya has yet to strike form. The wait was also on for JP Duminy to exploit the advantage of playing at home. If you look closely, both teams did well in the opening 10 overs of their respective innings. It was only in the latter half of their innings that they faltered. Just that Mumbai Indians fared worse than the Deccan Chargers. Also Deccan Chargers had the advantage of winning the toss and batting first.
It would be unfair to say that it made the difference in the end but the chase weighed heavily on the Mumbai Indians. It was a good toss to win on a good batting wicket – there was not much movement in the air – that was very slightly on the slower side but on a ground that had a fast outfield, it was a distinct advantage.
Deccan Chargers could have put a good total on the board given the conditions. After all, most games in the IPL have been won batting first and most games that have been won chasing have been thanks largely to the D-L method.
Gilchrist and Gibbs gave the best possible start to the innings getting 63 in 6.4 overs. They batted in contrasting styles. Gilchrist was playing from the crease and hitting the ball straight over the bowlers’ head. When the ball was full, he was guiding it past point to the third man region. Gibbs was stepping out to drive the ball, revealing the fact that it was a pitch slightly on the slower side.
After Gilchrist’s departure, Gibbs guided the innings beautifully with Dwayne Smith. There was no drop in momentum as Gibbs and Smith scored 25 runs of the next 20 balls with Smith getting 20 of those. Their partnership of 61 had set the platform for a final assault. Had Gibbs or Rohit Sharma stayed on a bit longer, Deccan Chargers would have scored in excess of 180. In fact, after Rohit Sharma’s dismissal only two boundaries were hit in the last 32 balls. Honestly, I thought that Mumbai Indians was in a comfortable position having triggered a late collapse and restricted Deccan Chargers. And they took a similar path as DC had taken. After 10 overs, Mumbai Indians score read 84 for one; Deccan Charges had managed 88 for one by the strategic break.
Spin has been the flavour of IPL so far and that was true even for this game. Take a look at the overs bowled by Mumbai spinners and those by the Deccan Chargers spinners. Mumbai Indians bowled seven overs and that cost them 56 runs and fetched two wickets. Deccan Chargers used nine overs of spin and it got them three crucial wickets at 62 runs. The economy rate (6.88) of the DC spinners was also better than the Mumbai Indians spinners (8).
It was interesting to see how five overs between 10th and 17th were bowled by non-regular bowlers and cost only 41 runs. Venugopal Rao bowled full length and never gave any width or length to slog. The runs just dried up and Deccan Chargers won their third straight game.
The collapse began in the 11th over after Sachin Tendulkar’s dismissal. Gilchrist got the confidence to employ spin from both ends. Between the 10th and 17th over, Deccan Chargers resorted to spin and it yielded results. Ojha picked up a wicket in the 11th, 13th and the 15th over to push the Mumbai Indians on the backfoot.
Mumbai Indians had two left-handers – Shikhar Dhawan and Duminy who should have been able to handle Ojha’s left-arm spin quite comfortably but could not. There were no partnerships after the 11th over and even irregular spinners like Rohit Sharma and Venugopal Rao bowled exceptionally well.
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