With three straight wins over the last 10 days, Rohit Sharma's side appears to have settled in their own skin. (PTI Photo)
MUMBAI: Left walking a tightrope after an inconsistent campaign, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils will do all they can to unsettle each other when they meet at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday as the race for IPL 8 playoffs heats up.
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What is interesting is that both teams have won and lost equal number of matches (4 wins and 5 losses) and are tied with eight points. Delhi find themselves on the sixth spot due to a slightly better net run rate. But that doesn't convey the real picture.
With three straight wins over the last 10 days, Rohit Sharma's side appears to have settled in their own skin. They have a stable look around their bowling department and the batting, too, finally appears to be pulling its weight. But that still hasn't done enough to hoist them from the penultimate position on the table as the couple of abandoned games and the defeats suffered by table toppers Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings have kept things tight in the middle.
MI were impressive as they outclassed no-hopers Kings XI Punjab with a polished, clinical bowling display that brought a 23-run victory at Mohali on Sunday and a dollop of renewed expectation around their chances of making it to the playoffs. Pocket-rocket Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons, the only opening pair to have not put together a fifty-plus run stand before Sunday, managed to shoo the monkey off their backs with a 111-run partnership against Punjab.
After a string of low scores, Parthiv finally looked convincing as he went on to make 59 off 36 deliveries. With Simmons, too, coming good once again with a 56-ball 71, the openers may have got rid of a major headache for MI.
Delhi, meanwhile, have some answering to do after quite bizarrely leaving out their highest wicket-taker Imran Tahir from the playing XI against Rajasthan Royals and losing by 14 runs on Sunday.
Leg-spinner Tahir has prised out 13 wickets in eight games and a seasoned warrior like him can be handy on any wicket. DD were hurt by his absence on the big ground of Brabourne.
The JP Duminy-led side squandered whatever little momentum they had generated with their strong win over the Kings XI at home. In fact that has been their way this season where every victory has given way to a disappointing defeat.
But all is not lost as Duminy put it, "it's not all gloom and doom for DD." The South African knows his team has to win four out of the remaining five games to stay in contention.
DD will also go in with the bragging rights for this one having scored a convincing 37-run win at home against MI earlier this season.
Zaheer Khan's availability has added teeth to the attack while the team think-tank will hope the real Yuvraj Singh shows up for the big game.
The exorbitant player has only 124 runs to show from eight innings and even though his skipper has backed him repeatedly, somewhere the patience might have started to wear thin.
"It's just 15 minutes now after the game and all options are open. At the end of the day he's a match winner and I still believe he can come good and have to back him to do that," said Duminy on Yuvraj.
source the times of india
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