Mumbai Indians have managed to pull of a miraculous defeat from the jaws of victory against South Australia at Durban in their second league match in Champions League T20 championship. Mumbai Indians did everything right in the first three quarters of the match but managed to do everything wrong in the last quarter of the match and that cost them dearly not only the match but their chances of advancing further in the tournament.
Most teams in the world would have defended a score of 180 very comfortably which Mumbai Indians put on the board after electing to bat first. Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lankan speedster lived up to his reputation bowling in the right areas thereby complicating things for South Australian batsman who already were under pressure of chasing a imposing total. One must say that South Australian openers were fortunate to survive Malingas opening burst often failing to make contact and whenever they made contact the edges went to the boundary or eluded the fielders and whenever it went to the fielders, Mumbai Indians were extremely generous spilling every possible opportunity.
What worsened matters for Mumbai Indians was the fact that it is not only their catching which let them down but even their ground fielding was not anywhere close to international standards. Fielders were charging towards the ball when they were not required to do so which allowed South Australian batsman to complete singles into twos. Apart from these there were cases when fielders failed to gather the ball properly or the ball slipping through filelders hands which allowed batsman to convert singles into easy twos. If it was pathetic to see exceptional fileders like Duminy struggling to gather the ball what was worse was there were some fielders like Zaheer Khan who were targeted by the batsman. The moment the ball is played to Zaheer Khan batsman were assured of a two as they knew cannot gather the ball cleanly and throw in a single motion because of a probable injury. In a format like Twenty20 where less than 10 runs separate the winner from the loser a team cannot have the luxury of having a fielder who cannot pick and throw the ball in a single motion. Zaheer Khan may be rated highly by the media as a bowler but he is no Mc Grath or a Pollock and even the Mc Graths, Pollocks and Akram's are selected for their teams only if they are 100% fit to bowl and field. These days in all formats of the game more so in one day internationals and Twenty20 games it is a mandatory requirement for a player whether a batsman or a bowler to be a exceptional fielder. V V S Laxman inspite of being a exceptional slip fielders was ignored in the shorter formats of the game because he was not a good outfielder and if a player of the calibre of V V S Laxman easily one of the greats of the game can be left out one wonders how Zaheer Khan finds himself in the team as he is neither a exception bowler or a fielder now a batsman who can be relied on to get crucial runs.
What has hurt Mumbai Indians more is the fact that Zaheerhas badly let down the team even in an area in which he is performed to do a reasonable job if not excel. In the first match against Lions at Johannesburg, Mumbai Indians were on the back foot even before they begin their innings as Zaheer Khan leaked out runs conceding 45 runs in 4 overs without even picking a single wicket. In yesterdays match at Durban Zaheer did no better conceding 33 runs in 4 overs for a solitary wicket. The ease at which South Australian tail enders unknown to the international world were flicking an experienced international bowler like Zaheer Khan for huge sixes at crucial stages of the match hurt many Indian fans. The contribution towards Mumbai Indians from their premier bowler in this tournament was 78 runs in 8 overs for a solitary wicket.
Mumbai Indians managed to claw back in late stage of the South Australian innings, thanks to Malinga's spectacular fourth over Mumbai found themselves in a stage that they had 41 runs to defend in 18 balls and at one stage South Australia needed an impossible 33 runs in a mere deliveries and it was here Bravos immaturity came to the fore as the West Indian all rounder conceded boundaries of successive deliveries thereby making it a manageable 25 runs in 12 deliveries for South Australia and Zaheers 14 runs of the penultimate over of the match meant that Harbhajan Singh had only 11 runs to defend of the last over.
Mumbai Indians skipper Sachin Tendulkar would be feeling badly let down because it was as if his fielders and bowlers were competing with each other to let the team down. In the first match some poor fielding and bowling meant that Mumbai Indians conceded 186 that too after opting to field first when they were hoping to restrict the opposition to around 160 to 165. As a captain Sachin did things right except for under utilising Mc Laren who was allowed to bowl a solitary over but his fielders gave away at least 25 easy runs which made the difference between 160 plus to the final score of 186. In the second match Mumbai Indians batsman did a excellent work peaking in the second half of the innings and posting a total which would have been won 95 times of out 100 but a flurry of full tosses form Zaheer and Bravo and crucial stages undid all the good work put by batsman.
If Mumbai Indians are knocked out of the tournament which looks a realistic possibility considering they have at least a tough match on hand Sachin's captaincy may come under the scanner but to be fair to Sachin there are lot of things beyond him. Sachin can only set a field and ask a bowler to bowl to his field. A bowler cannot be forcibly be made to bowl much in the same manner a kid is held by the hand and let to a school. Similarly fielders are expected to grab chances or half chances or gather the bowl cleanly and throw it.
Anything can still happen in this tournament but one must say Mumbai Indians made a mess of their chances and that too after winning tosses in both the matches they played.