Shoddy batting cost Mumbai Indians a place in CLT20 main round

Tags: Champions League Twenty20 2014, Mumbai Indians

Published on: Sep 17, 2014

Going into their final qualification match against Northern Knights, Mumbai Indians knew they had to win the match to qualify for the main round in the tournament.

Going into their final qualification match against Northern Knights, Mumbai Indians knew they had to win the match to qualify for the main round in the tournament. Their confidence was on a high after they had won the previous qualifying match comprehensively. At the same time, their inconsistency was also a worry since they had gone down in the first qualifying game without any fight. The question was which Mumbai would turn out for the game in the final qualifying game. Unfortunately, for Mumbai Indians and their fans, it was the unsure side that turned out, and cost Mumbai a place in the CLT20.

Batting first, Mumbai needed an assured start. Lendl Simmons and Michael Hussey had given them the same in the previous clash. But, this was not to be the case against Northern Knights, and that cost the team dearly. Knowing how heavily they depend on their openers to take them to a big score, their early dismissals really affected Mumbai. Even so, the performance of the Mumbai middle order was unacceptable, and it was their shoddy batting, which doomed the team in the match. Guys like Ambati Rayudu and Aditya Tare have lot of experience at the T20 level, but failed to stand up to the challenge on the day.

Once the Mumbai Indians had lost half their side for under 50 runs the match was well and truly over. In T2 0 cricket, unlike one-day cricket, you do not get a chance to recover from such a poor start, since there just aren't any overs left. And Mumbai Indians suffered owing to the same. Kieron Pollard played a breezy knock down the order to lead a fight back, but that would have made an impact only if the earlier batsmen had set some sort of a platform for them. In the same vein, the late blasts by Lasith Malinga and Suresh Gopal also could not make any difference to the end result.

Indian batsmen have traditionally struggled against slow medium bowling, and this weakness of theirs came to the fore once more against Northern Knights. The veteran medium pacer Scott Styris, with his stifling line, just did not give the Mumbai batsmen any pace or leeway, and strangled the opposition. Although it was pace which made the initial difference, Styris bowled Mumbai out of the tournament claiming three wickets in as many overs. Mumbai possibly missed a trick by not sending Pollard in earlier once the innings got stuck. It was an overall disappointing batting effort.

In hindsight, Mumbai Indians dearly missed the services of their skipper Rohit Sharma, who was ruled out of the series due to injury. Although one man doesn't make a team, Sharma has been an inseparable component of Mumbai Indians both as a batsman and a leader over the last couple of years. Sharma has played some sensational T20 knocks for Mumbai in recent years, and as captain as well, he had made an impression on the team. In his absence, Mumbai looked clearly out of sorts, a far cry from the champion side that lifted the CLT20 trophy last year. With them being knocked out, Mumbai can now only reflect on what went wrong.

--By A Cricket Analyst

Related News