Mumbai Indians – Indian Premier League 5 – Team Assessment
Another of the Indian Premier League’s pre-tournament favourite bid farewell to season five, as Mumbai Indians crashed out following a beating from Chennai Super Kings in the first eliminator match. While an onslaught from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820’s exit as the no 4th team will be hardly pleasing for the owners, who have splashed out heavy cash to assemble one of the most formidable squads in the competition.
However, as it stood the giants always remained spoiled for choices and ultimately found it difficult to find a smooth combination throughout the competition. Their miseries were compounded by the instability upfront, leaving too much pressure on the middle and lower order.
Mumbai scooped up all sorts of players. Overseas signings included http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RP-Singh-c87028 and Pragyan Ojha.
Top Players
Their batting hardly gelled and always offered little in terms of consistency. While Levi introduced himself with a debut half-century on the opening day, he went haywire after that. Same was the case with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gibbs-c60021 and Peterson, and as result were in and out of the team.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/BW-Hilfenhaus-c1204. His partnership with Tendulkar also yielded some success and remained their highest scorer in the play-off match.
Among the domestic players, Rohit Sharma and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SR-Tendulkar-c2556 did little throughout the campaign.
In the bowling department, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Thomas-George-Burrows-c93472ed, what wasn’t foreseen was the battering he got in the final game, where he conceded 41 in 4 overs.
Other bowlers complimented him on their days but http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Harbhajan-Singh-c61453 was the biggest disappointment, with both ball and as the leader of the team.
Disappointment and joy
For a franchise of giant stature, their disciplinary acts were highly unwanted, for which they were duly penalized. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MM-Patel-c1987 was at the centre of some obnoxious behaviour, and Harbhajan was also guilty of crossing the limit, along with Rayudu.
They were further penalized for a slow-over rate in the elimination game with the skipper fined a whopping $40, 000, while players had to surrender $10,000 each.
There were plenty of last-over joys for the side – http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Punjab-c833, while Pollard-Rayudu partnership which toppled Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Final Assessment
Having invested so much, the Indians will be disappointed they failed to find consistency. They always needed solidity upfront but always came up short – Tendulkar’s early phase injury being pivotal.
Also the buy of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KD-Karthik-c1780 proved costly as his woes totally left them dependent on last-ball heroics – a scenario which needs to be addressed in months to come.
The skipper however, was humble after their campaign was finally over, conceding that Chennai played like true champions.
"Of course, I am disappointed that we lost, but we cannot change the result. The CSK played like champions and deserved to win," Harbhajan said.
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