Coach Shaun Pollock unhappy over too many changes made in the batting order against Rajasthan Royals
Coach Shaun Pollock unhappy over too many changes made in the batting order against Rajasthan Royals Sachin Tendulkar has experienced a few heartbreaks in his distinguished career and the Mumbai Indians' loss against Rajasthan Royals at Durban on Thursday will be as painful as any.
Lower order mess
The skipper cannot be faulted for the way MI lost. It was a match they could not have lost after needing four runs in the last over with three wickets in hand. His lower-order made a mess of it and gifted the game to Royals.u00a0 Mumbai take on Chennai Super Kings here today.
Coach Shaun Pollock made it clear that the strategy and batting line-up was the skipper's call.
"Sachin gave us some thoughts on how to combat the situation, the wicket was turning and he thought he was better equipped to deal with the Royals attack, so he thought he was better off coming down the order. A captain makes the decision on the field, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't," said Pollock.
There were wholesale changes made in the batting line-up for the all-important run-chase. Tendulkar pushed both himself and Sanath Jayasuriya down the order. JP Duminy was shifted to No 5 while Dwayne Bravo, Yogesh Takawale and Ajinkya Rahane, batted at No 1, 2 and 3.
The coach said in as many words that he was not happy with the gameplan. "It is not ideal to alter the batting line-up so much for such a big game. Pressure does a few things and it was unfortunate the way we lost," said Pollock.
After the defeat, MI are left with only an outside chance of making the semi-finals, that is if they can win both their last two games.
