Mumbai Indians

After seeing the performances of the early matches of each team, Mumbai Indians, Pune Warriors definitely are the teams to watch out for. Due to this x-factor the match between those two sides demanded greater expectations but one team’ failure made the other team predominant as Mumbai Indians posted an easy win over Pune Warriors by 7 wickets.

Yuvraj got his toss call right and opted to bat first with the hope to post a huge total. But the collapse was on when Ahmed got rid of the dangerous Jesse Ryder and Manhas was caught by the keeper in his first ball of the same over. Soon Munaf Patel was brought into the attack and he rattled the stumps of Tim Paine and when Yuvraj was gone in the same over, Pune Warriors were left struggling at 33 for 4 after 6 overs. Monish Mishra could not impress this time though as he too left early for 12 of the bowling of Murtaza. But some sensible and controlled hitting by Robin Uthappa made the scorecard look decent but after he was caught brilliantly by Pollard and Murtaza was on cloud nine. After that there was no hope of making runs and slogging just earned them 20 more runs after they were all-out in the 17^th over to set a target of 119.

Davy Jacobs was a sensation of Champions League last year but turned out to be one of the biggest flops in this IPL. His lack of runs with the bat gave room for Sachin to try a new opening batting pair with himself and James Franklin. But that did not work out as Franklin was dismissed early for 6 by Wagh. But nothing else changed as Rayadu and Sachin was all set for another big partnership. They added 74 runs with the occasional boundaries and rotating the strike more often than not. But then came the big moment as Tendulkar was finally out in this IPL as his ambitious hit after dancing down the track was well caught by Thomas not before he had scored 35. But with Rayadu too heading back to pavilion for 37 the match was about to get a bit of surprise but then with Symonds and Rohit Sharma in the crease you don’t expect any miracles to happen for the bowling side even if you drag the match to the final ball of the innings. 5 runs from last over and was squeezed down to one run from one ball by Murali Kartik but the only six of Mumbai Indians innings came just when required and they now look all set to clinch glory.

Tags: Cricket, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, MI, Mumbai Indians, Pune Warriors