Thursday 18 March 2010

Mumbai's day out

Well this is quite usual in the T20 format of cricket and more so when it comes to the Indian Premier League when a team that ended on a high note in the previous edition of the same is found getting belted by a team that finds no place in comparison with the other team. And this was once again the case when the Mumbai Indians beat the Delhi Daredevils by a whooping 98 runs which could be the case in test matches and one day cricket and not in a T20 game and that too in IPL. But, scorecard suggests otherwise.

No total should have seemed to trouble or even put in some pressure on the Delhi Daredevils especially on Virender Sehwag who cares to nobody when it comes to a tempting delivery. And, Sehwag did exactly that when he scored or rather hammered a 16 ball 26 with a strike rate of more than 150. And neither was Dinesh Karthik or Maharoof anyway less when it came to belting the ball which they did with a mind blowing strike but was nowhere when it came to the number of runs scored. All that they could do was to just wait and see what the batsman coming in next would do.

After the exit of Dinesh Karthik who scored a 6 ball 16 runs with a strike rate of 233, no other batsman from the Delhidaredevils really stood up to the Mumbai Indians' bowling. It was fascinating to see well known bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga going in for runs when part time bowlers like Sanath Jayasuriya and Dwayne Bravo did a fab job with the ball. There were just 2 bowlers from the Mumbai Indians' side who bowled their full quota of 4 overs viz Sanath Jayasuriya and Kieron Pollard, both of whom have less to say with the ball.

But, such unusual incidents have been part and parcel of the IPL. It was a shame for the Delhi Daredevils who not only lost the game by a large margin but also couldn't play their complete quota of 20 overs when they lost their 10th wicket with still 21 legal deliveries remaining. Only Farveez Maharoof was able to hit a couple of shots outside the boundary in the entire Delhi Daredevils' innings. Not even Sehwag could do that. And, one has to notice the presence of Maharoof who was included as a bowler but was not given the ball and was the lone six hitter in the innings. Any explanations???

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