Mumbai Indians batsmen were caught napping at home, on a Wankhede stadium track described by Harbhajan Singh as the best wicket, helping spinners and offering pace and bounce.
The first six batsmen were gone by the 11th over, from opener Richard Levi down to wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik dismissed going for wild slogs and Ambati Rayudu run out.
MI's misery at the crease lasted 19.2 overs, only one six was hit off 116 balls sent down by the Delhi Daredevils bowlers compared to 12 sixes against Rajasthan Royals five days ago at the same venue.
“We lost the game in the first six overs, gave wickets away playing rash shots,” admitted the MI captain.
Asked the reason for holding himself down the order at No. 6 when he was fluent enough to play anchor, he replied: “We want Pollard to play freely, hence the decision to keep myself lower in the batting order in case of a need to speed up scoring later when chasing more than 170.”
With spin doing such damage at the Wankhede, Harbhajan did not bowl when he could have showed the way during MI's defence of 92 runs.
Lasith Malinga was rested to give him recovery time from a back problem. “I did not bowl to give a chance to those who hadn't got chances so far,” said the captain.
