56 games of the IPL season have been completed and we got
our top 4 who headed straight into the playoffs.
Mumbai Indians sealed their berth in the top 2 before their
final league encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders and actually managed
to rest half their side for that game.
Rising Pune Supergiant played Kings XI Punjab and knew a win
would propel them from 4th to
second, but a defeat would see them drop to 5th and overtaken by the
Punjab side on Net Run Rtae who were 5th would clinch 4th spot. Pune beat Punjab
and we had ourselves a Maharashtra derby in the 1st playoff.
The Wankhede Stadium, home ground of the Mumbai Indians and venue of the first playoff was
packed with a biased home crowd, the stadium was decked in blue and the
atmosphere was electric. The Pune side however had support as fans were
cheering on Mumbai boy Ajinkya Rahane as he lent stability to the Pune innings
after they were in a spot of bother after twin strikes by Mumbai’s pacers in
the 1st 2 overs sent back explosive opener Rahul Tripathi and captain
Steve Smith leaving the Supergiant at 9-2.
It seemed like Mumbai had made a good decision to bowl
first. I had a few doubts as Mumbai have batted first in both of the IPL final
wins as well as their IPL 8 playoff 1 win in 2015 all 3 against Chennai Super
Kings and had lost the IPL 3 final to Chennai Super Kings, the IPL 4 qualifier
2 to Royal Challengers Bangalore , IPL 5 eliminator to Chennai Super Kings and
the IPL 6 qualifier 1 to Chennai Super Kings when they were chasing. The ball
seemed to be stopping onto the batsmen and Mumbai possibly missed a trick by
not allowing Lasith Malinga to bowl his full quota of 4 overs. Mitchell
McClanaghan got torn into in the penultimate over and conceded 26 runs. Jasprit
Bumrah went for 15 in his over and Mumbai Indians conceded an IPL record 41
runs in the last 2 overs.
McClanaghan’s over shows us how costly a wide or no ball can
be. He bowled a no ball at the start which gave Pune a free hit which was
carted for 6 over long on, Pune now had the confidence that they could clear
the rope and Dhoni in particular went berserk, McClanaghan bowled 2 wides in a
row while attempting to steer clear of Dhoni’s hitting arc. The 2nd
of those extra balls was hit over long of for a 6. Costly? Hell yea!!
With 162 to win Mumbai started off brilliantly with Parthiv
Patel playing positively and scoring at will, his partner Lendl Simmons was
labouring along and an unfortunate run out put him out of his misery. An
umpiring howler followed which saw Rohit Sharma adjudged LBW after replays
showed a massive inside edge onto his pads, and then two balls later Ambati
Rayudu fell.
At 41-3 the pressure of chasing in a knockout game was
getting to Mumbai and Pollard perished in a manner similar to Rayudu when he
too holed out to short mid-wicket. No one but Parthiv Patel made a contribution
and wickets fell at regular intervals. The remaining batsmen were all
struggling due to the ball gripping in the surface and were holing out in the
deep.
In the end Mumbai finished 20 runs short despite big hitting
by the 3 pacers towards the tail end of the innings.
Captain Rohit Sharma
termed the performance, the worst batting display this season.
As a result of this dominant win, Rising Pune Supergiant
head straight off to the finals and will have a 4 day rest to sit back for a
bit as they await the winner of Mumbai vs Hyderbad/Kolkata.
Mumbai now head off to Bengaluru and will await the winner
of Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders. One thing
for sure though they seriously have to consider their batting line-up as well
as the usage of McClanaghan in the death.
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