Dubai: In IPL 2022, the Mumbai Indians have had a shaky start. The blue and gold army appears uneasy and clueless so far, both with the bat and the ball. Of the five games that they have played so far, they have lost all the games.
In the last game against Punjab, Mumbai were going good on the chase. Dewald Brevis’ blitzkrieg of 49, coupled with Tilak Varma (35) and Suryakumar Yadav (43) in the run chase, pushed Mumbai near the target, but Tilak and Kieron Pollard’s run outs finally proved crucial to the side’s downturn. In the last leg of the game, they needed 28 runs off 12 balls, with Suryakumar Yadav on the strike.
The onus was on SKY to play the game wisely and stay on the ground till the last over and finish the game. Since, it was a given that Odean Smith would be bowling the 19th over, because all the specialist bowlers had completed their overs, SKY would have easily scored the runs to lead the team to their first victory this season. Even though Mumbai were chasing the target, the pressure was on Punjab’s Smith as he had given away 2 crucial sixes to Tewatia in the game against Gujarat Titans.
Dismissal at crucial juncture
Suryakumar started the South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada’s over with a boundary, followed by 2 runs and then a dot ball. But was out caught off the next ball in the boundary at a crucial juncture of the game. Though there are no ifs and buts in the game, but if SKY would have finished Rabada’s over with 1s and 2s, he could have made it up in the final over, leading his franchise to their first win this season.
So far only Dhoni has played this brand of cricket, ensuring that he stays on strike till the end of the game to finish the game with a win, be it for his franchise Chennai Super Kings or for the Indian team.
This is where the difference comes and that’s why I say not every player can be like Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
