Well done Kotla, A Good Pitch Finally.

The Kotla pitch did not disappoint this time as it looked an absolute batting beauty and produced some fantastic batting. It was good to see the Delhi pitch in good condition as it is serving a one year ban from international cricket. This is a positive sign for Indian Cricket as Delhi will host more IPL games and a few World Cup matches next year. The crowd was packed to capacity at Kotla to witness the Delhi Daredevils take on the Mumbai Indians, a contest that was hyped as Sachin versus Sehwag. This contest was however dominated by the Mumbai Indians with a fantastic all round performance to take them to the top of the table. Still early days in the tournament but it is very encouraging and motivational for a team that missed the semi final berth in the first season by a whisker and was seventh in the second. Delhi, on the other hand had an early set back when Gautam Gambhir walked off the field with a hamstring pull just after putting Mumbai in to bat. With him they not only lost an important batsman but also a captain, thus the responsibility of leading the side fell on Dinesh Karthik.
Mumbai started off very well with Sachin Tendulkar providing a very good start. He looked very comfortable against the pace of Nannes and also played Maharoof with ease. Jayasuriya on the other hand looked a little streaky and was out to a brilliant catch by Yogesh Nagar, the substitute for Gambhir. Nagar was in the thick of things today, the first ball that he was on there was a run out opportunity and he took two great catches to dismiss Sehwag and Tendulkar. Had Ponting been the captain of Mumbai Indians, he would have thrown a tantrum because of Nagar’s performance (remember Nottingham 2005 when Gary Pratt on for Simon Jones ran him out). Tendulkar kept the momentum going hitting good cricketing shots. He did not slog and was very easy on the eye. By coring 63 in 33 balls he has said “I can play the young man’s game too, watch out.” Even after his dismissal, it was again the pair of Tiwary and Rayadu who attacked the bowling and kept the momentum with Mumbai. We certainly learnt from the game in Kolkata that the momentum can change very quickly during the slog overs. Tiwary made his second consecutive fifty and after the two ere out it was the jet lagged West Indian pair of Pollard and Bravo who hit a few boundaries to help Mumbai to reach 218. Initially, I thought it wasn’t such a good idea playing the two as they had just arrived the night before and would have been jet lagged but it certainly worked for Mumbai as both contributed with the ball as well. The Mumbai bowling was very good with Harbhajan back and the strength provided by Bravo and Pollard. The highlight for me was Aditya Tare’s wicket keeping. He kept brilliantly in the game today and his stumping of Dinesh Kartik is one of the best I have seen after the victims own act on his ODI debut way back in 2004. There is not much to say about Delhi’s performance today. A team can have a few bad games in the middle but I don’t think this will affect them. Sehwag looked in touch and Dilshan too played a few good shots. Nannes has been in good bowling form but he ran into an inform Tendulkar today. The only problem in the bowling department for them is Maharoof. He is leaking too many runs for the liking. It won’t be a bad idea to get in Wayne Parnell. They will also hope Gambhir’s injury isn’t serious. He one of their most influential players having already played a match winning knock in the first game. As such I don’t think Delhi have anything to worry about apart from Gambhir’s injury and they certainly can win their next game against Chennai.
Mumbai will be happy with their performance and it looks like they have found the right balance with the West Indians coming in. As Sachin mentioned at the presentation that they have a good bench strength as well with the likes of Nayar, Napier, McLaren, Duminy, Fernando and Ronchi waiting in the ranks.
Tomorrow we have Bangalore taking on Rajasthan at Bangalore. Rajasthan will be looking for their first win but are without Greame Smith and that means Damien Martyn might get a game. Bangalore will take confidence from their game against Punjab and will look to keep momentum.
Till then, Adios.