Mumbai Indians' so-far disjointed but impact-heavy line-up will face off against Somerset's canny format-specialists for a spot in the final of the Champions League T20, at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday.
Mumbai's campaign is the kind that can hardly be clubbed under any convenient head. The side started off with an injury-list that was large enough to pass off as a team by itself. It was then afforded the luxury of fielding five foreign players, a decision that was revoked on Friday with the return to fitness of all-rounder Suryakumar Yadav.
The side won two games it ought to have lost and when its third match against Cape Cobras was rained off, it could very well have been knocked out of the tournament, but instead found itself atop the group standings.
The side became the first to make it to the last four, but has crossed 100 on only two of the four occasions it has batted, with Kieron Pollard's 58 being its highest and only score over 50. The unlikely Abu Nechim is its leading wicket-taker, picking up six wickets, almost one-third of his side's scalps in the tournament.
In this climate, it is not surprising that skipper Harbhajan Singh discounted his side's stop-start show so far, and instead, placed his faith on the match-winners in his eleven, the kind that can come up with a decisive contribution over the space of a few deliveries.
“T20 is the kind of format in which you don't need to be in the best of your form to score runs or take wickets. I only believe that. As a matter of fact, five balls if you connect with the bat, that could be your day and if you are a bowler, if you take a wicket with your second ball, you become a different bowler in this competition.”
If Mumbai's strategy is to take the wrecking ball to the opposition, Somerset's resistance will come brick by brick. Peter Trego, Craig Kieswetter and Roelof van der Merwe all have half-centuries in the tournament, and have made the field restrictions count (scores of 63 for one, 54 for two and 48 for two in Power Plays) in every single match.
The bowling is led by skipper and 34-year-old veteran Alfonso Thomas who came in for praise from Shaun Pollock for his ‘ability to read and adapt to wickets and bringing into play necessary variations — the slower ball, the yorker, the slow bouncer and cutters.' Thomas leads the wickets chart for his team (seven wickets at an economy rate of 6.80) and will be supported by another cricketer who will rely as much on experience as skill — Murali Kartik.
Kartik (three wickets at 6.63) and van der Merwe too (five wickets at 6.84 and 169 runs) have been steady with their slow left-arm ware, the kind that is usually effective in T20 cricket unless pitted against a slew of lefties, a scenario that they are unlikely to come up against in the semifinal.
Both the southpaws at Mumbai's disposal fall under the ‘foreign player' category and with the restrictions imposed on their number, only one of James Franklin and Aiden Blizzard is likely to play.
The potency of Somerset's spin duo and medium pacers (including the aptly named Adam Dibble) will be augmented if the Jekyll-and-Hyde Chepauk strip is to show its slumberous face, but whichever way the pitch and the match play out, it is sure to yield an unlikely finalist.
