It was a typical Delhi afternoon — dry and hot. The temperature at the Ferozeshah Kotla was another few notches higher as the teams representing two biggest cities in India — Delhi and Mumbai — trained on the eve of their IPl game on Thursday. Though Mumbai Indians are hotter than their hosts in star quotient and boast of some of the world’s greatest (former) cricketers in their entourage, Delhi Daredevils have only a couple of names who can be called stars. But, the hosts can take comfort in the fact that they are placed higher in the points table.
While Daredevils sit at fifth position, MI are languishing at seventh in the eight-team competition. And the star value of Mumbai side is much higher in the dug out than on the field. Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Anil Kumble, Shane Bond, Robin Singh and John Wright, they all form the support staff for MI; they don’t take part in the real competition. Although the bunch that really competes is also among the best in the business, it’s certainly not making their illustrious mentors proud.
Both the teams have played five matches each with Daredevils winning two and Mumbai managing just one. From the stats perspective, it may look like Daredevils are a better performing side than MI but, in reality, there is little to separate them. Struggle is the common theme in both team’s campaign so far.
When Daredevils and Mumbai Indians face each other on Thursday, it would be a good opportunity for both the sides to try and get things on track.
Problem for Daredevils is their over dependence on JP Duminy and Yuvraj Singh. They have played a couple of good knocks but the team needs more consistency from them. Duminy is the anchor that keeps Daredevils innings together while Yuvraj is the aggressor whose job is to provide the push in the second half of the innings.
As for Mumbai, problems are many fold. While Delhi have two to depend on, Mumbai have only Rohit Sharma, who has insisted that middle-order is the right place for him, despite scoring a brilliant 98 in the first match. Kieron Pollard, fortunately, has played a couple of handy knocks for Mumbai to paper over the huge cracks.
What gives comfort to Daredevils is the performance of their two leg-spinners. Imran Tahir and Amit Mishra have bowled well and used their variations smartly. So far, no opposition has looked comfortable against these two. “Our match-winners have been our two leg-spinners plus (Nathan) Coulter-Nile up-front. We have to build performance around them, we just can’t depend on them,” Duminy said.
But there is no such comfortable corner for Rohit Sharma. Mumbai’s once reliable lasith Malinga is showing signs of decline. He is no longer able to send down those pin-point yorkers, bring crucial wickets or stragulate runs in the death overs. Harbhajan Singh remains the only steady option as no other bowler has shown as much consistency as Mumbai would have liked. Thursday gives an opportunity to both the sides to sort out their combinations that would serve them well in the remaining tournament.