More than luck… pluck!

MI players celebrate the wicket of Punjab Kings’s Harpreet Singh at Mohali recently. Pic/AFP

Though time is slowly running out for Mumbai Indians (MI), the kind of reputation the five-time champions have built over the years, nobody dare write them off. Languishing on ninth spot with just three wins from nine games, they cannot afford to lose any of their remaining five games, beginning with tonight's clash against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Ekana Stadium.

Poor form, injuries and discontent within the squad had afflicted the team even before the IPL got underway. In the past, MI have been in a similar situation which required them to win seven matches in a row to make the playoffs and they achieved it under now-deposed captain Rohit Sharma. The question in everybody's mind is can current skipper Hardik Pandya replicate the feat?

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LSG skipper KL Rahul

There is no doubt the pressure to prove his form and fitness, besides the public wrath over superseding Rohit as captain, has affected Hardik, both as a player and leader. Of course, he has overcome that situation to a great extent and led MI to two wins in their last three games. The team, thus, have some momentum and they have it in them to achieve the seemingly hopeless task of making the playoffs. They have enough experienced and quality players in their ranks to turn things around.

Tough task for KL & Co

As for LSG, they have blown hot and cold thus far, having won five of the nine games. They are tied with four other teams on 10 points. The situation is so tight that one defeat would seem like a disaster. Thus, KL Rahul & Co have their task cut out. In their previous game against Rajasthan Royals, their bowling and fielding was shoddy, so they need to get back to their best. The good news for them is that their promising fast bowler Mayak Yadav will be making a comeback after missing five matches due to a lower abdominal injury. If that happens, it is sure to give a much-needed boost to the floundering bowling attack.

LSG assistant coach Lance Klusener wants the bowlers to improve their performance by concentrating on line and length and bowling yorkers. "For me personally, I think it's easy to over-complicate. If you run in and execute even four out of six Yorkers - a skill we don't see a lot - a bowler would have done his job well. We're seeing too many slower balls and a whole lot of other variations, which I feel has affected pure death-bowling yorkers, whether wide or straight. That's a skill that we don't see very often these days.

"I think just looking at bowling performances throughout the competition, it has been quite disappointing," Klusener added. "There hasn't been a lot of good bowling. It's been a lot of ordinary bowling and batters are just too good these days at taking advantage," Klusener said.

Eyeing much-improved show

Hopefully, LSG bowlers will heed Klusener's advice and produce a much-improved performance against the desperate MI, who are bound to come hard at them. Luckily, the pitches at the venue are much better this season and going by the result of the last match where RR notched up the highest chase (199) in the IPL at the Ekana, it should provide for another interesting battle tonight.