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Bangalore: Mumbai Indians, only one of two teams to retain the full complement of four players allowed by the IPL rules, will, after the rolling over of the Delhi Daredevils on Sunday evening, be pleased as punch that three among them delivered in game one itself, with the fourth one's services barely needed.
If Harbhajan Singh and the incredible Lasith Malinga grabbed as many as seven wickets between them, skipper Sachin Tendulkar, with his unbeaten 46 ensured there would be no hiccups during the small chase on a slow track. That he didn't require Kieron Pollard to even step up to the crease tells the tale of the MI domination.
On the other hand, MI's Tuesday night rivals at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Royal Challengers Bangalore, were stretched in their tournament opener at Kochi on Saturday. It was not the overwhelming show that was expected but is there a silver lining there for the hosts? After all to have your bowlers tested and the batsmen made to work hard is never a bad thing, more so if the result has ultimately gone your way, providing the momentum.
After Malinga's show though, it wouldn't be a wonder if the RCB think-tank spent a fair bit of their time in planning how to tackle the slinger. In a T20 game, you can't normally settle for playing out a bowler but with this guy, that too is worth a thought.
But, if they factor in the truth that with Malinga, just as the batsman has very little margin of error, so it is with the bowler himself, the approach could be altogether different. After all how much does it take for an attempted yorker to be converted into a full toss, not much actually. Then again these two sides have an abundance of foreign and homegrown talent and so it can never come down to any one man, albeit in this format, an individual can turn the game on its head.
Both teams are unlikely to tinker with the combination, not because of the adage 'don't change a winning combo' but more due to the fact these are early days as yet and that everyone deserves a fair run.
Take the case of opener Davy Jacobs for example. He was picked up by MI simply because they had seen first hand what he could do with the bat. The guy is the one of the most powerful hitters of the cricket ball and he had shown that in ample measure during the Champions League bash held in South Africa last year. Fellow South African Morne Morkel may have had his number in Delhi but that's the life of an opener, you get ample time to play a big innings but you also have to face the best of the bowlers and the new ball as well.
Similarly, RCB, tempted as they may be to bring in the experienced Charl Langeveldt in place of Dirk Nannes, or get in say S Arvind to replace Abhimanyu Mithun, they are likely to desist from making any of those changes.
Teams from
Bangalore Royal Challengers: M Kaif, Z Khan, V Kohli, A Mithun, SS Tiwary, TM Dilshan, ANPR Fernando, CA Pujara, AB de Villiers (WK), CK Langeveldt, JJ van der Wath, JD Vandiar, RR Rossouw, DP Nannes, LA Pomersbach, DL Vettori (C), KBA Karthik, RR Bhatkal, CM Gautam, R Ninan, S Aravind, MA Agarwal, BN Bharath, Abrar Kazi, AUK Pathan
Mumbai Indians: SR Tendulkar (C), AN Ahmed, Harbhajan Singh, DS Kulkarni, Murtaza Ali, MM Patel, AT Rayudu, R Sathish, RG Sharma, TS Suman, AP Tare (WK), AC Blizzard, MC Henriques, CJ McKay, A Symonds, JEC Franklin, DJ Jacobs, SL Malinga, KA Pollard, Yajurvindra Singh, S Kanwar, PS Suyal, BSK Yadav, CRD Fernando, SA Yadav
Match facts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (1430 GMT)
