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A critical week ahead of the Mumbai Indians

With fortunes swinging wildly, the team is fighting for survival, writes Ravi Shastri

I am going to focus on the Mumbai Indians as I believe they have to make a move now or face the harsh reality of not making it to the semis.

Mumbai Indians are in a bind. Their fortunes have swung wildly. From an extreme high to being sixth on the table, they are battling for survival. It doesn’t help that their next two matches are against two of the top sides of the competition: De ccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils.

The third one is against Royal Challengers Bangalore who thrashed them by nine wickets the other night. Put in the fact that there is just a day’s gap in all but one of their remaining matches and they don’t get two matches in succession at a venue and you get an idea of Mumbai Indians plight.

A problem

If the theory of at least five or six players of a side pulling their weight in clinching a game is true, then Mumbai have a problem. On paper most of them are match-winners. But they aren’t coming good together.

Mumbai would wish that Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya would fire together more often or their younger lot — Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar and Ajiyanke Rahane — would count. It isn’t happening.

On paper, no other team has as formidable bowling credentials than Mumbai: Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga are all match-winners but it isn’t being reflected in results. How do they stem the rot and climb back to the top?

It’s fair to say that the back-up for Mumbai’s stars are not coming good. Nayar did so in the first game against Chennai Super Kings and it made the winning difference of 19 runs.

Losing the game

The fourth and fifth bowlers of the side haven’t caused any ripples. Mumbai indeed is losing the game in the middle overs, both in batting and bowling.

Zaheer and Harbhajan haven’t exactly set the grounds on fire but they aren’t the culprits. Their economy is still below seven in the competition which is extremely good. Yes they could have done better than just three and six wickets but that’s the bane of all top bowlers; batsmen usually see them off and then take on the rest.

The great Muthiah Muralitharan too has just seven wickets from six games while a rookie like Shadab Jakati has eight from half the number of games! The same is true with Shane Warne!

Jakati has impressed me the most amongst the younger lot.

In the last game, Mumbai managed 48 runs from the last three overs and that’s an encouraging sign. Mumbai needs to induce the fear factor among opponents which opponents like Chennai and Delhi have done so successfully.

The next week is critical for them.

TCM

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