It looks as if Sachin Tendulkar and Mumbai Indians are still playing in the third edition of Indian Premier League as nothing seems to have changed for both of them.  The reason for Mumbai Indians success in third edition of IPL was due to the fact that Sachin Tendulkar ensured a solid foundation for Mumbai Indians by batting through the first half of the innings so that the likes of Kieron Pollard and company can have a blast during the latter half of the innings especially in the last quarter of the innings and that is what has been happening for Mumbai Indians in Champions League as well. While Mumbai Indians have adopted the same strategy as in IPL3 there have been a couple of notable differences and while one has been on the positive side.

Big positive for Mumbai in form of Pollard:- The positive side for Mumbai Indians has been the form of Pollard.  Pollard has delivered for Mumbai Indians last year as well but then he peaked only during the last half of the league as the entire IPLwas dominated by Sachin Tendulkar. The brilliance of Sachin Tendulkar especially in the first half ensured that Mumbai Indians were not under pressure at any stage during the tournament and therefore others played without the fear of failure or the pressure to perform and that helped Pollard in a long way as he was able to shrug of his initial failures.  This time around Pollard with the pressure of expectations and without the cushion of a longer league stage format as in IPL knew he had to hit form early in the tournament and that is exactly what he has done.  While Sachin Tendulkar has been as consistent as he was in IPL and he is the leading run scorer in Champions League as of now one must say Pollard has stolen the limelight from Sachin Tendulkar at least for the time being with his brilliant hitting.

In all the three matches Mumbai Indians played  more so in the second and third matches it was Pollards onslaught in the last quarter of the innings which took Mumbai Indians to scores of 177, 181 and 184.  In yesterdays match played at Kingsmead against Guyana,  Mumbai Indians were struggling at 99 for 3 after 15 overs and at the best they would have been looking at a score in the region of 145 to 155 considering the fact that they were losing momentum after the first 10 overs but Pollards brilliance ensured that Mumbai Indians recorded their highest score ever in this tournament. It would not be right to say Pollard is a slogger or hitter because he is more in the mould of Sehwag than Afridi.  Like Sehwag he looks calm at the crease and he is no hurry to hit every ball.  The best thing about Pollard is the fact that he does not get impetuous after hitting a six and does not go for a wild heave of the next ball and if the ball is in the slot for another big one he goes for it without the slightest of hesitation. 

Brilliant support from Rayudu:- While Mumbai Indians finished at a imposing 184 for 4 after 20 overs, Ambatti Rayudus contribution was a mere 4 of 5 deliveries. on the score card  However if one were to make a detailed assessment of Rayudus contribution he made the second biggest contribution in the innings.  When Rayudu joined Pollard at the crease Mumbai Indians were in trouble having scored just 99 after 15 overs and by the time he was dismissed Mumbai Indians were pretty safe at 152 with 9 deliveries still remaining in the innings with Pollard at the crease and the likes of Bravo, Harbhajan and Duminy yet to come though the first two in the list were eventually not required to bat.  For the record the Pollard Rayudu partnership yielded 53 runs in a mere 21 deliveries at a run rate of 15.14.  While Pollard contributed 47 in the partnership, Rayudu contributed 4 and there were a couple of extras.  Rahul Dravid for long enjoyed the reputation of being a team mean but Rayududid exactly the opposite of Dravid to prove he is a real team man.  Rayudu faced a mere 5 deliveries and allowed Pollard to face as many as 16 deliveries which yielded him 47 runs and made the biggest difference for Mumbai Indians.  Dravid on the other hand used to do the opposite as he used to face majority of the strike in the over thereby putting pressure on his partners and the team.

Negatives for Mumbai:- While the brilliance of Pollard has been a big positive for Mumbai why results have not gone their way is due to their poor bowling.  While the bowlers did a reasonable job in IPL3 without being brilliant, they were simply mediocre and that is one reason by Mumbai Indians are almost out of tournament in spite of their win against Guyana yesterday.  Mumbai Indians find themselves in a situation where they have won a solitary game out of three but actually speaking they should have won three out of three having amassed scores of 177, 181 and 184 at an average of 181 runs in the stipulated 20 overs.

Mumbai Indians are entitled for sympathy only on a solitary count and that is it is impossible for teams to come back given the fact that a team is assured of just 4 league matches and early losses put even the best of teams under severe pressure but then that has been more than compensated by the fact that their skipper won all the three tosses and let go by chances to dictate the course of the game in the matches they lost.