On the eve of the match against Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians mentor Shaun Pollock looked puzzled when a question was shot at him suggesting the certainty of his team advancing to the play-offs of the DLF-IPL-IV.
The former South African captain and distinguished seamer responded quickly saying the fate of at least two teams would be determined in their last league matches.
Pollock was not far off the mark; Mumbai Indians, which had suffered a defeat against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali, allowed Chargers to outsmart it at the Wankhede Stadium last Saturday, with the first signs of the match drifting away coming when Amit Mishra and Shikhar Dhawan hammered Munaf Patel for 23 runs in the last over.
Thereafter Ishant Sharma bowled an opening three-over spell that ultimately saw MI losing its second match, after climbing to the top of the table with 16 points.
MI faces Rajasthan Royals in a last home-match here on Friday and it would be keen to win two more points before its last match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Memorable send-off
The winner of the inaugural IPL would like to finish its last engagement with a victory and make it memorable for Warne, who has announced his retirement from the IPL. Moreover Royals would like to demonstrate that its win against MI at Jaipur was not a fluke.
Although Royals has been eliminated, it has the big names, apart from Warne, in Rahul Dravid, Shane Watson, Ross Taylor and Johan Botha to bring down the home team in its backyard.
There is also the prospect of a fierce contest, between Sachin Tendulkar and Warne, the highest wicket-taker for Royals with 12 scalps.
The Wankhede pitch has shown some bias to spinners and the MI batsmen were not able to come to terms with the turning ball and struggled against Mishra, Pragyan Ojha and J-P. Duminy in the previous match against Chargers.
“We played too many dot balls, but there's no reason to panic,” said Rohit Sharma after the loss to Chargers.
MI would be the team under immense pressure what with Kings XI Punjab breathing down the neck of two of the top four teams and hoping to make the play-offs at the expense of MI or KKR.
With Aiden Blizzard falling again to a poor shot against Duminy in the last match, MI would probably bring in left-arm spinner Raymond Price.
A positive outcome against Royals would confirm its place in the play-offs. In such an eventuality, the pressure to take the last place in the play-offs would be on KKR, even if it scores against Pune Warriors.
But in order to make the last league match of the IPL-IV interesting KXIP must beat Chargers at Dharamsala on Saturday.
