Having slumped to their worst defeat in the tournament, Mumbai Indians skipper Ricky Ponting has admitted that his and Sachin Tendulkar’s poor form has affected the team’s performance in the ongoing IPl.
Opening the batting, Ponting and Tendulkar have just managed two half-century stands together out of five games. As a matter of fact, on three occasions Mumbai lost its first wicket in the opening over.
And chasing a formidable 179 for three, the openers failed yet again as Mumbai suffered a humiliating 87-run loss at the hands of Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium last night. “The two guys at the top of the order haven’t done the job required off them by the team,” Ponting said at the post-match press conference.
“We are five games into the tournament; both of us need to play better. If we want to continue winning games and if we want to be the team at the end of it that holds the trophy up, then you need everyone in the team performing more often than not. Neither of us has played as well as we would have liked. I’d expect a lot from myself from the first few games compared to what I have delivered,” he added.
While Ponting has scored just 52 runs from five innings, Tendulkar is marginally better managing 69 from as many games.
The Royals first rode on Ajinkya Rahane’s unbeaten 54-ball 68 to post a formidable 179 for three, and then bowled out Mumbai for 92 in 18.2 overs. And Ponting admitted that they were outplayed by the Royals in all three departments of the game.
“We can’t blame the wicket. It looks bad whenever any team is under pressure and plays bad cricket. It was good and Rajasthan Royals batted very well to post a good total. We have to concede that we were outplayed,” said Ponting, who yet again failed with the bat.
“Our bowling did not adjust in the first few overs. The wicket probably did a bit more in the second half, when we came out to bat. We should have hung on a bit. It was a big chase and we could not bat according to plan. They took the pace away and the ball was holding the surface. They used the conditions very well,” said Ponting, who scored only one run before giving a return catch to Ajit Chandila.
Ponting also hinted that Mumbai could make few changes in the batting order. “We will think about mixing and matching, reorder a bit. I talked to the coaches before this game about making sure our guys in the middle order get a fair bit of batting early in the tournament, because guys like (Ambati) Rayudu haven’t had much of batting yet.”
Defending the total, Royals’ opened their bowling with two slow bowlers in off-spinner Ajit Chandila, who took a hat-trick last season, and left-arm tweaker Ankeet Chavan. Royals’ ploy struck gold immediately as Chandila put early pressure on Mumbai with the wickets of Tendulkar and Ponting.
Asked if he was surprised to see Chandila opening the attack, Ponting said, “They (Rajasthan) knew the conditions well and the ball was gripping the surface so I wasn’t surprised to see them opening with Chandila and Chavan.”
‘No Bhajji factor behind Sreesanth’s omission’
Rajasthan captain Rahul Dravid has brushed aside talks that temperamental pacer S Sreesanth was rested for the match against Mumbai Indians to avoid a possible confrontation with Harbhajan Singh, saying it was tactical move aimed at managing the workload of players.
Sreesanth, who returned with figures of 2-20 off his four overs against Kings XI in Royals’ previous game against Kings XI Punjab, was surprisingly left out of the match against Mumbai and in his place spinner Ankeet Chavan was drafted in.
“No there was nothing like ‘Bhajji factor’ (behind Sreesanth’s omission),” Dravid told at the post-match press conference last night when asked whether the change was done purposefully to avoid a possible confrontation between the two volatile players. “Sreesanth has played four matches and has performed well. We still have a long way to go and we want to keep him going throughout this long tournament. He can’t play all the matches,” the Rajasthan skipper clarified.
Sreesanth reopened the 2008 Slapgate chapter a few days ago by making an explosive claim that the entire incident was planned and that his former India team-mate Harbhajan Singh “backstabbing person”.
Talking about Rajasthan’s emphatic 87-run win over formidable Mumbai Indians, Dravid said their strategies worked to perfection last night. “The first six overs in batting and bowling were decisive. (Shane) Watson and (Ajinkya) Rahane had put on 62 on board and while defending, we reduced Mumbai to 26 for 2 by picking up the crucial wickets of Sachin (Tendulkar) and (Ricky) Ponting. This helped us tighten the noose,” he said.
Defending the challenging 180-run target, Dravid opened the bowling with two spinners in Chandila and Chavan and his ploy struck gold. While Chandila picked up the crucial wickets of Tendulkar and Ponting cheaply, Chavan just gave away 10 runs from his three overs.
“People tend to believe that I am traditional in approach but we have opened the attack with Chandila and Chavan earlier too. Yes we promoted Dishant Yagnik up the order and the ploy worked as he gave the much required thrust to the innings,” Dravid said about his strategies against Mumbai Indians.