Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians Review

We're back after a long hiatus. What to say, except that not watching the Ranji Trophy means you don't have a perspective on the game.

Very good start to the tournament for Mumbai, as they defeat Chennai by 20 runs. At the outset, Mumbai is a stronger team than last year. The bowling, especially, has strengthened considerably with the arrival of Zaheer Khan and Kyle Mills, and the return from injury of Lasith Malinga.

A bit of rain before the game meant that the pitch had some juice in it, and Dhoni made the right choice in deciding to bowl first. Tendulkar, however, sussed out the conditions perfectly, and decided that 145-150 will be a competitive total. The key, however, would be in not losing early wickets, and to that end, he and Jayasuriya gave Mumbai a reasonably good start.

A pitch invasion notwithstanding (by a canine, of all creatures that invade pitches), Mumbai drifted along sedately at around 6 runs an over, till suddenly the middle order collapsed. At that stage, 140 would have been a good total to get. As Mumbai fans have seen so often in the past, Abhishek Nayar came to the rescue, and roughed up Flintoff a bit. Three sixes in an over. And to think those were the only sixes in the Mumbai innings! And that really was the difference between a defendable and a competitive total.

The target of 166 had the experts claiming that Mumbai were slight favourites to win this particular game, though I disagreed. The pitch had eased out after the initial few overs, and the manner in which Mumbai scored 60 off the last five overs meant that Chennai, with their superior batting, could do the same.

However, Mumbai bowled to a plan. The six overs of powerplay were bowled by Zaheer, Malinga and Bravo, and cost only 40 runs. In the middle overs, Bhajji and Jayasuriya cleverly bowled flat and hit full lengths to keep Chennai scoring at only about a run a ball. By the time the quicks were reintroduced, Chennai needed 75 from 7 overs, and a combination of fast yorkers and slow loopy bouncers choked Chennai from the game.

So, what do we learn from this game? One, with a bowling attack with four quality internationals, Mumbai will win games more often than not, as long as the batting doesn't throw it away. Two, the team looks very well balanced, with seven bowling options, and batting down to number eight. However, if the middle order fails, like it did today, the batting looks somewhat brittle. But that should not happen often, and Nayar's presence at number six means that the situation is never hopeless! Three, there is good depth in the squad. We have cover for every single player in the team, and that is going to come in handy in a tournament like this, with each team playing three games a week.

Not all is hunky-dory though. It was strange that Rohan Raje got in ahead of Dhaval Kulkarni. Kulkarni has more pace than Raje, and after his trip to New Zealand, he is better placed to exploit the conditions in South Africa. Unless he has an injury that I have not heard of, which would be tragic, if true. The other aspect bothering me is the 'keepers we have. Not even in the best of days will I rate Pinal Shah or Yogesh Takawle as anything other than journeymen. Unfortunately, the only other 'keeper we have is Luke Ronchi, and given that you cannot really drop any of Jayasuriya, Malinga, Bravo and Duminy, we have to made do with Shah or Takawle.

Given the way today's games panned out, it is safe to say that bowlers will be a lot more important this season than the last. That said, it will be the fast bowlers and spinners who will hold the trumps, by exploiting the bounce in the wickets. In other words, the dibbly-dobblers who are neither here nor there will get targetted for quick runs. Equally important will be how the Indian players adjust to the extra bounce here, and on the evidence of the second game, that will not be easy. Doesn't matter how many South Africans you have in the team and support staff. And this is where Mumbai should find it somewhat easier, with most of the local players spending a month in South Africa training for the tournament.

The atmosphere in the ground today was a bit funereal, though it picked up during game two. Guess they are all Rajasthan fans in that country. Even though I can only watch the games on TV, I already miss the Mumbai fans egging on the team and barracking the opponents.

My predictions for the final four are Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore. But given that flipping a coin should yield better predictions, I'm sure that will come back to bite me.

Final thoughts - Shane Warne's spell today was absolutely magical. That alone was worth the entrance money. He was far too good for the Bangalore line-up with his flippers and ripping leg breaks. You can name him in Australia's test line-up tomorrow, and he should still be able to win them the game!!

Update: Read Bhajji's views on the game here. There isn't a lot in terms of inisghts into the game, hopefully there will be some in future. Not sure if it is actually Bhajji, but since Bid Adda has listed this on their celebrity blogs page, it probably is.