The Hindu : Sport : Another run-feast in the offing

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Friday, Apr 25, 2008
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Another run-feast in the offing

Rakesh Rao

Both Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab will be desperate to turn the tide

— Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

STRIKE FORCE: Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh will look up to Brett Lee’s firepower with the ball as much as his own exploits with the bat for his team’s first taste of success.

MOHALI: So far, Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab have shared a similar fate in the Indian Premier League.

Both are winless after two matches. Both made more than 200 runs when batting second against Chennai Super Kings and yet ended up as losers.

At present, the teams have reasons to draw consolation from each other’s lack of success in the competition. But that will change when one desperate team will try to feel better by adding to the agony of an equally desperate rival on Friday.

On Thursday, the birthday celebrations of Sachin Tendulkar may have helped Mumbai Indians recover faster from the close loss suffered the previous night. But the journey from Chennai to here did not leave the side with much time to have a ‘feel’ of the PCA Stadium pitch.

Strange feeling

Stand-in skipper Harbhajan Singh is sure to feel strange leading a side against Punjab in his home state. His knowledge of the surface will surely help but Mumbai must be praying for Tendulkar’s speedy recovery from a groin-strain he aggravated in the first Test against South Africa. So far, Tendulkar has wisely refrained from showing any urgency to make his IPL debut. With 11 more league games to follow after the one on Friday, Tendulkar has time on his side.

No doubt, Mumbai has the batting to score heavily on the batsmen-friendly pitch here but it remains to be seen whether Punjab bowlers manage to do justice to their reputation.

Since the pace bowlers, Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan, S. Sreesanth and James Hopes do give a slight edge to Punjab, Mumbai will be looking to Sanath Jayasuriya and Robin Uthappa to come good and wrest the advantge.

It will also be interesting to see whether the collective wisdom of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara helps Punjab in stopping Jayasuriya. Mumbai will be looking for less-established batsmen to come to its aid.

Brave front

Skipper Yuvraj Singh has maintained a brave front even after his reputed bowlers failed to deliver in the first two outings. On the brighter side, in Hopes, Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Simon Katich and Yuvraj, Punjab has the right mix of batsmen.

To counter that, Mumbai has all-rounders Shaun Pollock and Dwayne Bravo apart from Dilhara Fernando and Aashish Nehra. With Harbhajan and Jayasuriya providing the spin-options, Mumbai has a varied attack. The other night, Michael Hussey showed that playing cricketing shots in the ‘V’, instead of improvising repeatedly, could be very productive at this venue.

The placid nature of the pitch encourages stroke-play. The straight boundaries are shorter and the outfield is lightening fast. Once the ball catches the slope in the outfield, cutting off boundaries becomes increasingly difficult. So expect another run-feast at the PCA on Friday.

In a contest of this nature, it is difficult to ascertain a clear favourite. Punjab has the strength to come out stronger but also requires the support from the crowd. In the opener against Chennai Super Stars, the crowd appeared neutral but given the desperate situation that Punjab finds itself in, Yuvraj will expect the crowd to support the home team.

The teams (from):

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar, Luke Ronchi, Sanath Jayasuriya, Robin Uthappa, Ashwell Prince, Pinal Shah, Abhishek Nayar, Shaun Pollock, Harbhajan Singh, Musavir Khote, Dilhara Fernando, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aashish Nehra and Dwayne Bravo.

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kyle Mills, Shaun Marsh, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, S. Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, James Hopes, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Luke Pomersbach, Ajitesh Argal, Pankaj Dharmani, Rishi Dhawan, Karan Goel, Uday Kaul, Sahil Kukreja, Wilkin Mota, Nitin Saini, V.R.V. Singh, Sunny Sohal and Tanmay Srivastava.

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