A comedy of errors littered Mumbai’s fielding effort, but they still managed to get the last laugh thanks to Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard
Arun Venugopal in Mumbai 29-Apr-20161:14
‘We were 15 runs short’ – Lynn
Mumbai Indians fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan picks up the ball in the 19th over. He has had a good day – his three overs have yielded only 23 runs – but it’s slightly dented by a missed caught-and-bowled chance at the end of his first over to reprieve Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir on 8.McClenaghan eventually dismissed Gambhir but the wicket had come at an inflated price with the batsman having gone on to score 59. Now, McClenaghan, four legal deliveries away from completing his spell, bowls a short, slower ball to Chris Lynn, who pulls it to deep midwicket where Tim Southee moves gingerly and drops the catch.A frustrated McClenaghan tests his hair’s tensile strength before firing another short ball. It’s Yusuf Pathan’s turn to play the pull and the ball is headed Southee’s way again. This time the ball sneaks through his hands for a four. Lynn and Pathan score 17 more runs after being let off. Mumbai Indians’ least expensive fielding lapse had come in the eighth over when Parthiv Patel fluffed a simple run-out chance offered by Robin Uthappa, who got out three balls later.This was an intriguing performance from Mumbai in what should have been a formulaic Wankhede game – win toss, elect to field and out-slog rival batsmen. Consider the erratic pattern: Rohit Sharma and his gun fast bowlers back up tactical enterprise with action; their fielders undo the good work; Kolkata Knight Riders score 20 runs more than what they look good for and yet find themselves short by at least as many runs; the visitors’ spinners persevere and the fielding is good but a handful of impact strikes are all Mumbai require in the end.The randomness of events was negated by the disproportionate importance of the toss at the Wankhede where teams seek to beat the dew by batting second. All four games at the Wankhede in IPL 2016 have been won by teams chasing. A side batting first is expected to post a total well above 200 – South Africa found in the World T20 that even 229 wasn’t safe – and it is here that Mumbai’s fast bowlers produced a compelling counterpoint.Rohit ensures that overs 14 to 20 are handled by McClenaghan, Southee and Bumrah. Knight Riders manage only 14 runs and lose Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav – both to top-edged pulls – in the first three of those overs. Both McClenaghan and Southee then bowl a predominantly leg-and-middle line with four fielders deep on the leg side and nobody guarding the square boundaries on the off.Bowling short from over the wicket may appear to be risky but McClenaghan’s sharp pace allied with deceptive slower cutters make it harder to hit him into the stands. Southee alternates between the fuller delivery and the yorker, and it’s a swerving yorker from round the stumps that accounts for Andre Russell, who had just begun to take off with three fours off Bumrah in the previous over.With the bat, Rohit and Ambati Rayudu launch into a hectic beginning for Mumbai, scoring 64 in the Powerplay. With Knight Riders’ slower bowlers in operation, they lose two wickets for 14 runs in the next three overs. The dew is vigorously wiped off the ball after every other delivery, but Sunil Narine and Shakib Al Hasan – with his whirly, hard-to-hit ,round-arm deliveries – produce a conditions-defying effort with the likes of Gambhir and Russell flinging themselves on the field.Mumbai need 69 off 42 and then 59 off 36, but with Rohit having breezed to his fourth half-century in the tournament and Kieron Pollard having recently joined him, an over of release looms like an impending storm. The short boundaries make it look inevitable, and Pollard duly swings three sixes in a 23-run 16th over from R Sathish. The match lasts two more overs after that. Lynn later acknowledged the impact of the dew on Knight Riders’ spin-heavy bowling attack.”We just knew that it’ll be a little bit harder when we had the ball in hand, especially [for] our spinners, which is what we were relying on,” Lynn said. “The dew coming down didn’t offer the spinners much, purchase out of the wicket also [was not much]. We got off to a great start but we didn’t really capitalise on that platform that we had set.”Mumbai batting coach Robin Singh, however, felt the dew wasn’t a major factor.”We checked the wicket when we went out, we checked the outfield when we went out for both the breaks and it was very little dew,” Robin said. “I think they lost their way a bit. 180 was [the] minimum score on this wicket. The wicket was pretty good to bat on, probably the best batting wicket we had in the whole season here.”With Mumbai having completed their last game at the Wankhede this season, they will have to quickly find their feet at their as-yet-undecided venue, where they will play their final three home matches. Given their 50-50 record in Mumbai this season, a change of scenery may not necessarily be a bad thing.
