After four consecutive losses to start their Indian Premier league 2015 campaign, Mumbai Indians looked to be out of reckoning to make the play-offs. But they managed to turn things around. And how! The Ricky Ponting-coached side won the next eight out of 10 matches to qualify for the play-offs, against all odds.
After their comfortable nine-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday night, the Rohit Sharma-led side managed to finish second in the group stages and set up a pulsating Qualifier 1 with Chennai Super Kings.
The two teams are awash with quality international players but there is a significant difference in how they’ve reached this stage in the competition.
While Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team has had a comfortable season thus far, Mumbai have had to dig deep in order to play at Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. While the winner takes a flight onward to Kolkata to play the Final on May 24, the loser will get a chance to make the Final in the Qualifier 2 in Ranchi on May 22.
After the game against Sunrisers, Rohit stressed the need to stay fearless against CSK amid the cushion of a second qualifier. “Finishing in the top two obviously gives us a chance to play fearlessly. I feel we have played good games till now but the playoffs will be a different ball game. You can’t afford to make too many mistakes but knowing you have a second chance it gives us the license to play fearless cricket,” he said.
CSK Without McCullum
CSK would have a huge void in their batting order with Brendon McCullum joining New Zealand side for the series against England. Not so surprisingly, the big hitting McCullum leads the pack for CSK in terms of run scorers this IPl. Baz, his nickname, has accumulated 436 runs in the group stages for the team. Next in the list is captain Dhoni with 328 runs, thus highlighting the difference his absence would make and how big a relief it would be for the Mumbai Indians bowlers.
In his absence, CSK would have to forge a new partnership to open the inning and give them a quick-fire start in order to replicate the role of the Kiwi. Michael Hussey is the obvious choice to open the innings with Dwayne Smith. Hussey’s inclusion in the last match against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali could be taken as the confirmation.
One of the reasons for Mumbai’s turnaround have been their bowlers led by a lethal left-right combination of lasith Malinga and Mitchell McClenaghan. The tricky right arm-left arm pace duo has picked 33 wickets between them. They have found decent support in Harbhajan Singh and Jagadeesha Suchith in the middle overs to put the opposition under pressure and eat into run scoring options.
MI’s batting, like the team, has had an on-off display so far. At the beginning, Rohit was the only real sparkler for them. Since then, he’s found support in big-hitting Kieron Pollard, consistent and elegant Ambati Rayudu and spirited HardikPandya.
But the real difference has come from the openers Parthiv Patel and llendl Simmons, who weren’t enjoying a great start early on but since then have picked up scoring 407 runs in 11 innings. If MI’s batting gets going, it would be difficult to stop them on a normally batting-friendly Wankhede pitch.
To counter them, CSK would need Ashish Nehra (18 wickets) and Dwayne Bravo (20 wickets) to take wickets early on and put Mumbai batsmen under pressure. Besides the speed prowess, Chennai boast of three quality spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Pawan Negi.
If momentum is to count for something, Mumbai have the upper hand. Despite a great start, CSK fizzled out in the latter stages including a surprising loss to Delhi Daredevils in Raipur last week. Mumbai, meanwhile, have won their last two games going into the play-offs.
Incidentally, this matchup is a repeat of 2013 qualifier between the two sides which Chennai went on to win comfortably by 48 runs and faced off again in the final at Eden Gardens where Mumbai Indians won their only IPl title so far.
The two teams couldn’t be more evenly matched than the fact that their head-to-head record reads 11-11 going into their 23rd match.