How can 1 win over 11

Well it is obvious that a team where 11 players contribute to their team would walk out with all the applause the match can bring in. And, yesterday as well things were hardly different in the game between the Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab at Mumbai. Well it should not be confused with the fact that Mumbai won because they were playing on their home soil. This could be the match for all people who would like to find flaw in Sachin Tendulkar who scored an individual 51 at the cost of his team's total. After Jacobs, Sachin Tendulkar had the least strike rate.

Sachin Tendulkar played 45 balls before getting out on 51 at a strike rate of 137.83 while Ambati Rayudu scored the same amount of runs playing 8 balls less than what Sachin Tendulkar took. Both have to come under the scanner for, the innings didn't include a quickfire that is quintessential in a T20 game especially the IPL for in addition to the team losing the match, the audience would be deceived of an action on the field. Though the batsmen who came in next didn't play a long innings like Sachin Tendulkar and Rayudu, they added to the entertainment.

Kieron Pollard and Rohith Sharma despite getting out on low scores of 20 and 18 respectively did the same at strike rates of 181 and 163 respectively. The next to have come in were Andrew Symonds and Suman. Well not having our discussion regarding Suman, Symonds would have well been an asset with him being the biggest of all the hitters out there in the Mumbai Indians side. Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga would also have added to the action. Had Sachin Tendukar and Ambati Rayudu thought otherwise, the score towards the end would have shot past 180 or may be even more.

Speaking team work, it was evident why the Kings XI Punjab despite the presence of Adam Gilchrist, David Warner, David Hussey etc ended up on the losing side for their lack of team work. All those aforementioned players were among the top big hitters in IPL but not yesterday at Mumbai. If not for Shaun Marsh who scored 61, no other batsmen showed any toughness on the crease. One can sense the selfishness of Paul Valthaty who scored 33 runs at a strike rate of 86.87 when the situation demanded 150+ runs for every 100 legal deliveries. Finally, lack of team work saw he team lose and viceversa.

Same Score But A Different Approach

Approaches are the stepping atones of results one can say. A bad approach would definitely lead to a very bad result and a good one ensures a good result provided good luck prevails or bad luck doesn't overpower. The example for the same was given by the Mumbai Indians in their second encounter against the Kings XI Punjab at Centurion. The Kings XI Punjab team ended their batting innings by scoring exactly the same score that they did in the first encounter against the Mumbai Indians. But, the result was not the same for either teams out there whatsoever. And that too this was not the close encounter that it was on the other day.

The fifth over of the second innings when the Mumbai Indians' side was batting can never be forgotten especially by Sreesanth who once again proved that he is known only for wrong reasons on and off the field and not when the ball is given into his hands. The fifth over of the innings went for 21 runs with Bravo belting Sreesanth for two sixes and a boundary followed with 2 couple and a single. May be this was the over that bought confidence in the Mumbai Indians' batsmen who until then had scored just 14 runs from the first 4 overs. It is a comeback for Sreesanth that the Kings XI team have started going from bad to worse since his introduction.

A hint was given by Sreesanth when he played the first match of the series and giving away 23 runs in the 19^th over of the Rajasthan Royals' innings which helped them go past the 200 run mark for the first time ever in the series. There was no Sreesanth in the earlier encounter between these two teams, which the Kings XI team won in a close affair. And another thing that turned out to be costly for the Kings XI team was the dropping of Yousuf Abdullah who was the architect in the Punjab team's victory in the first encounter returning with figures of 2/19 off the allotted 4 overs.

Yuvraj Singh going in for Brett Lee and Sreesanth made things worse for his team. This showed the consequence of disturbing the winning combination and Yuvraj Singh did that exactly at a time when his team required desperately to win incase his team had some chance of making it to the semis. But, even the Mumbai Indians' side have their last chances of making it to the last four of the Indian Premier League and why will, and why should they compromise? In addition to the bowlers' debacle, the batsmen never seemed to provide any sort of support to their bowlers. If not for Sohal's 43 runs at the top, none of the batsmen really stood to the challenge. Yuvraj Singh is still of the mindset that he is a batsman and will probably take time to realize that he is a captain too and would be responsible for his team's progress.