Mumbai cruise to easy victory by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab
Player:	DJ Bravo, SR Tendulkar, JP Duminy, Harbhajan Singh, S Sohal
Event:	Indian Premier League 2009

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DateLine: 12th May 2009

 

The only thing that would have kept Kings XI Punjab was that this was exactly the score they had defended against Mumbai Indians in their previous game. But

 

Dwayne Bravo had no intention of making this one anything like the last contest, as he blasted an unbeaten 70 to guide his side to an eight-wicket win. The win got Mumbai to 11 points from 11 games and into fourth place on the table.

 

The match largely ended up as a no-contest, as Bravo and skipper Sachin Tendulkar made light work of the Punjab attack, which at one stage was hoping against hope, having removed Sanath Jayasuriya and Ajkinya Rahane. But that was the only time they were in the match.

 

Bravo seemed initially to be in the mood to finish things within the first ten overs, as he took on S Sreesanth, who is totally clueless about how to deal with top-class cricket. That one over may well be the last we see from Sreesanth in this tournament. Twenty-one runs from one over and many unimpressive overs previously, are pretty much clinching evidence.

 

Bravo was in supreme form, his 70 runs off 59 deliveries with seven fours and three sixes, and Punjab had precious little chance of doing anything against that sort of an assault.

 

Another ominous thing for all comers was the way Tendulkar began middling the ball. His 41 was sedate in comparison to Bravo’s knock, but that too had four boundaries and a six. But what was disconcerting was his poise.

 

For Punjab, the only plus was the way Brett Lee bowled. He had a lot of fire, and he made even the rampaging Bravo jump. But that may well be more good news for Australia than for Punjab.

 

The Punjab innings was an incredible combination of howlers from all, and some decent fielding from Mumbai Indians. Only one man, Sunny Sohal, seemed to have any idea about what to do with the Mumbai bowling, and that reflects on the scorecard.

 

Two ducks from the top three is hardly the way things should go, especially after the skipper had won the toss. But Simon Katich fell playing too early to Dhawal Kulkarni and then Sohal sold a dummy to Irfan Pathan, and Dwayne Bravo beat the left-hander to the race back to the crease.

 

Sohal, to his credit, tried to make up for the setback by wading into the Mumbai attack, but there was precious little else from the other end. Kumar Sangakkara was a far cry from his normal self, as was Yuvraj Singh, and Punjab were left woefully short of what they’d have expected even to be a fighting total.

 

Sohal scored a fiery 43 off 23 balls, with five boundaries and three sixes, but seemed to get into some mode of infallibility and was too casual to a tentative throw from Sachin Tendulkar, to be found short at the non-striker’s end.

 

His dismissal, followed by a couple sensational spells of off-spin, sealed Punjab’s fate.

 

Harbhajan Singh has now proved that he is right up there in the art of off-spin. He teased and taunted the Punjab batsmen, completely bamboozled Sangakkara with a floater and was overall almost unplayable as he sent down four overs for just nine runs.

 

But the off-spinning discovery for Mumbai is JP Duminy, and on Tuesday too he proved his worth, dismissing Yuvraj and Wilkin Mota in the same over, to return figures of 2/15 off four overs.

 

Those two spells more or less cooked Punjab’s goose, as they were left wondering what is it exactly that they have to do to get things going. Maybe consistency could be a solution.