Wed, 04 May 2011 - IP Pune vs IP Mumbai, IPL 2011,44th Match - Bulletin

Rampaging Mumbai seal Pune’s fate

Pune almost crashed out of the race for the knock-out stages of the IPL as they lost to Mumbai by 21 runs at their home ground, their seventh consecutive loss this year. With this win Mumbai jumped to the top of the standings and in all likelihood secured their place in the last stage of the tournament.

During the whole duration of the match, Mumbai looked in control overcoming a sluggish start to post a more than competitive total of 160 runs largely due to the big-hitting Kieron Pollard. In reply, Pune repeated the mistakes that have led to their downfall so far.

If Pune were to have a serious shot at the target, they needed a flier but the very first ball jolted the home team as Jesse Ryder tried to drive a fullish delivery from Harbhajan Singh but got a thick edge and the ball lobed to the point fielder. Pune had brought in South African Graeme Smith to improve their attacking abilities at the top but he too failed to do anything substantial as he miscued an attempted pull to newcomer Blizzard at midwicket making only six runs.

Yuvraj who should have come up the order, let the game slip by sending Abhishek Jhunjhunwala at number four and he ate-up 15 deliveries for 10 runs. The captain finally walked in the ninth over to find the run rate already hovering above the 10 run per over mark. He however tried to put up some fight by hitting a couple of crowd-killers, the second time around he launched his team mate Harbhajan over long-off for a huge six.

The very next over, Malinga was brought back to remove the home skipper and the south-paw carved a short delivery from him over point for a four and the very next ball, a stinging bouncer kissed Yuvraj’s bat and flew down to third man, Munaf completed a tough catch much to the pleasure of fielding Coach Jonty Rhodes.

From there on, Uthapa was the only hope for Pune but the Mumbai bowlers led by slinger Malinga were too good. The Sri-Lankan picked up three wickets and the Indian duo of Harbhajan and Munaf Patel picking a wicket apiece.

Earlier, Yuvraj continued his good form with the toss and chose to field. Mumbai employed the familiar tactics of a steady start with a new opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Aiden Blizzard. The latter, however didn’t last very long as an Alfonso Thomas delivery got him to nick one and Robin Uthappa took an excellent catch behind the stumps. As has happened all season, Ambati Rayudu came in pushed the scoring along with Sachin adding 40 runs for the second wicket.

At this stage, the Pune spinners started to put the brakes on the Mumbai scoring, first Yuvraj had the ‘little master’ caught by Ryder for 24 runs and Rayudu soon followed him caught in the deep trying to clear the long-off boundary.

Pune leggie, Rahul Sharma bowling a mixture of sliders, quick leg spinners and the one that goes straight on, conceded just seven runs from four overs, his spell being the most economical of IPL-4. The amazing figures looked even better with two wickets to his name. One of his victims, Tirumalsetti Suman played authentic cricket shotsto help himself to a quick fire 36 of 16 deliveries.

T20 specialist Alfonso Thomas was taken for a couple of pretty looking boundaries of consecutive deliveries and deposited in the stands by Suman, before another specialist of the slam bang version, Kieron Pollard took him to the cleaners hitting two boundaries and a monstrous six. That 28 run over proved to be very costly for the hosts as the total got into insurmountable territory.

The two franchises might be based in cities that are very near to each other but after this match, the two teams are poles apart on the table, one ruling at the top and the other languishing at the bottom. It however remains to be seen is Dada can reverse Pune’s fortunes in the games to come.