Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals, IPL 2009
second encounter (first match rained out).
... 6 runs of 9 balls with 4 wickets in hand, and yet Mumbai lost!
Sachin Tendulkar addressed the fact that Mumbai Indians were not using their batting resources as well as they should in the short 20 over format. Today, he sent Bravo (who smacked them brilliantly in the last match) and Takawale (their keeper) to flatten the strike rate as Mumbai Indians were to chase a reasonable but competitive 140+.
In my view, such a plan was worth a shot, since the opening bowling approach in this IPL has been to shuffle bowlers and keep it slow. Best to pitch your fringe batters against the fringe or slower bowlers!
The mistake however, was perhaps that Ajinkya Rahane was sent up as Bravo fell early. This meant that Rahane and Takawale, both inexperienced players- could not hit through and did not get out either in the first 5 overs.
In such a gambit, one can discount 2-3 wickets of your support batters if the plan fails, and if it works you get a strike rate boost. However, in this case they had only about 23 runs in the first 5 overs. Mumbai lost wickets and overs!
Postionally, however, it meant that Warne and the spinners would be up against the main batters of Mumbai Indians. That was balanced with Mumbai coming out just ahead, overcoming the deficit of the earlier blunders.
Perhaps the answer was to send Jayasuria or another senior player when Bravo fell, so that stock scoring momentum is maintained.
Yet such plans will be needed. On a bad day, if you can end up needing 6 runs of 9 balls with 4 wickets, the plan can still work.
Will Mumbai play an extra batter? One cannot complain about the fact that Chetanya Nanda (their extra bowler) took out Yusuf Pathan.
Yet, I think there is room for an additional batter, just to reinforce such plans.
Mumbai need 2 in 2- and the good thing for them is that their net run rate is up there.
Saumil
15 May 2009
Mumbai
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