Mumbai Indians have gained so much ground in the first leg itself that yesterday's defeat against Kings XI Punjab may not affect their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals
Mumbai Indians have gained so much ground in the first leg itself that yesterday's defeat against Kings XI Punjab may not affect their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals. But, being league leaders, their pride will surely be pricked.
The needle: Kings XI Punjab's Irfan Pathan celebrates the wicket of MI
batsman Kieron Pollard during their IPL T20 group stage match in Mohali
yesterday. PIC:IPL2010/GETTY IMAGES
MI have been the pacesetters of the third IPL having accumulated 14 points from their first eight games. The only question mark over their impressive performance is that they have all but one of their seven victories at home.
The experts had been waiting to check them out as to how they played away from home. And, after two defeats in as many games, doubts are now being raised that MI's comfortable position has also to do with the luck of the draw.
Piyush Chawla and Irfan Pathan took three wickets each and skipper Kumar Sangakkara hit a fighting half-century as bottom-placed Kings XI stunned MI by six-wickets at the PCA Stadium yesterday.
MI's batting has failed to click in both the games and their Director of Cricket TA Sekar admitted that his team did not have enough runs on the board to make a match of it. "That's Twenty20 cricket. Any team can beat any team. Now the trend is lower teams are beating the top teams. We lost some quick wickets and could not keep up the run-rate. It was a good batting track and we should have got to a total of 175. We fell 20 runs short," said Sekar.
"In the last two matches, our batting was not up to the mark. We have a very good batting group and we will be able to come back strongly," added Sekar. He admitted that MI made good use of the home advantage but said every team will be playing equal number of games at home.
"Knowing the conditions well, gives the home team an advantage. But while playing away, it's different. Maybe, we got to play five games on the trot at home and that was an advantage," said Sekar.
Kings XI Punjab coach Tom Moody said MI were deserving of the top spot they hold at the moment. "Mumbai were playing their best cricket in the first leg. Sachin Tendulkar was dictating terms at the top of the order and their local young players were doing a fine job too.
"Momentum is so important in this tournament and they may have lost some of it in these two games. There is no doubt they will be playing in the semi-finals and they would want to go into the that stage with momentum behind them," said Moody.
About the game, the winning coach attributed it to leg-spinner Chawla's superb spell in which he took three prized wickets of Tendulkar, Ambati Rayudu and Saurabh Tiwary.
"The main problem for us in the tournament has been the inability to take wickets in the first 10 overs. Chawla did that for us today and showed why he deserves to be in the Indian team for the World T20 Cup," said Moody.
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