Mumbai in merry drive

Thu, May 15 01:15 AM

EVEN THOSE driving along the Marine Drive with their car stereos on full blast could have heard shouts of "Sachin, Sachin" emanating out of Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday evening. With Mumbai IPL team captain Sachin Tendulkar, having recovered from his groin trouble, playing his first IPL match, anything else would have been an aberration.

And the capacity stands groaned in dismay when Tendulkar called it right on the toss and put Chennai IPL into bat. The crowd's wait to watch their favourite player and explosive Sanath Jayasuriya bat together had just gotten longer by 20 overs.

But Mumbai's Shaun Pollock and pacer Dhaval Kulkarni bowled well enough to keep the crowd's interest away from the impending batting bonanza. Tight spells from these two bowlers went a long way to tie down the strong batting line-up of Chennai, who could manage a total of 156 for six from their 20 overs.

Chennai's two consistent performers S Badrinath and captain M.S. Dhoni once again joined forces when score was 46 for four and added 95 runs for fifth wicket to give their team a semblance of a chance against strong Mumbai batting line-up. Earlier, Pollock seemed to have Chennai opener Stephen Fleming in his hold as he bowled good length regularly with subtle variations, with Fleming flashing his bat in vain most of the times.

Even S Vidyut, who had scored three boundaries off Ashish Nehra's first over, found it tough to deal with the South African warhorse's almost precision guided bowling. He fell to Pollock in the third over.

The Chennai batsman, who from non-striker's end had seen Fleming's skier being dropped by Jayasuriya, found no such luck coming his way when he tried to hit straight over bowler's head. The miss-hit skier found Kulkarni at mid-off.

Pollock gave away only nine runs from his three overs. He even kept the in-form Suresh Raina guessing with his good length deliveries.

Pollock returned for his last over, the 11th of the innings, in which he had the swashbuckling Dhoni missing and playing the ball more with his pads. The Chennai captain also survived a loud appeal for caught behind before Pollock ended his four overs with a maiden.

With only nine runs from his quota, the South African had once again given Mumbai a head start into the match. Also, Dhawal Kulkarni in the ninth over struck gold as he ended Fleming's misery at the crease.

The batsman tried to drive at a full-length delivery that was angled in and only managed to play it on to stumps. And a ball later, the Mumbai youngster struck again with a bounce that surprised Chamara Kapugedara and took an edge to the wicket-keeper.

The repair job for Chennai was once again left to Dhoni and Badrinath, who took their time to build a decent partnership. Badrinath who was innovative with his paddle flicks, went full throttle in the 18th over hitting Rohan Raje for a six over mid-wicket.

The next over he hit two sixes off Dwayne Bravo, reaching his fifty with the second one hit over long on. He fell the next ball to a fantastic catch by the West Indian bowler.

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