Mumbai's show in the batting power play may have let them down and it appeared they were hoping for Pollard and Hardik to strike in the death overs
Punjab Kings’ KL Rahul celebrates the wicket of MI’s Ishan Kishan. Pic/BCCI; IPL
Mumbai Indians’ top-order seems to be putting too much pressure on themselves, because the lower-order is unable to launch big blows at the death.
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Having been asked to bat first by the Punjab Kings and losing Quinton de Kock early on Friday, the responsibility of assessing a total was up to Rohit Sharma (63) and Suryakumar Yadav (33). Both with a strike rate of below 125, one imagines they had worked out a total on the basis of the surface.
The power play batting performance may have let MI down (21 runs off six overs) as one felt they were preparing for the death overs, hoping for Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya to strike big blows.
When Suryakumar was dismissed at the start of the 17th over, the total read 105. They finished with 130 in the remaining 29 balls. The belief that the lower-order would give them a competitive total backfired. With totals of 159, 152, 150, 137, 131, it is evident the surfaces are not to the liking of a power-packed MI batting and more so, the pressure on their bowlers to squeeze out wins is much more than before.
Ravi Bishnoi and Mohammed Shami ensured the areas of recovery MI had pinned their hopes on, were disrupted with great bowling, especially by Shami at the death. Both with 2-21 ensured batting well at the death was not a part of the MI script.
With chasing low totals comes challenges. Don’t lose early wickets, don’t fall behind on the run rate and don’t allow key bowlers to pick up wickets are all statutory warnings. Kings addressed all of these with an opening stand of 53 between KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal.
KL and Chris Gayle made sure the MI bowling didn’t work out as per plans. Gayle was mature, different and intelligent in the way he restructured his game to achieve the target. KL provided a sense of calm and assurance that while he was there, there was not much to worry about.
Going forward, KL will be the key to how Punjab shape their innings and it is evident he knows that his work is cut out. Solid and smart, he provides the old-fashioned romanticism of batting, where there is touch and softness in his demolition of bowlers.
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