The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai has seen humongous totals been posted in the past; the most recent being in the recently concluded match between India and West Indies in T20 World Cup. One of the notable matches of the World T20 was when England chased down South Africa’s total of 228 riding on Joe Root’s destructive knock of 83. However, the pitch at Wankhede today did not turn out to be fruitful for the Mumbai Indians batsmen as the Rising Pune Supergiants seamers knocked down Mumbai’s top 4 batsmen within the power-play.
The only way R Ashwin can complete his full quota of 4 overs under Dhoni is when I play EA Sports cricket next 😛 #MIvRPS #IPL9
— jigar mehta (@jigsactin) April 9, 2016
Rohit Sharma, Lendl Simmons, Hardik Pandya and Jos Buttler all followed in succession as they found no answers to the RPSG seamers Ishant Sharma and Mitchell Marsh. The Wankhede pitch had slightly more grass today than it has normally and thus it resulted in beautiful bowling conditions for the seamers as the ball was swinging well. But, the Mumbai Indians batsmen fell more to bad shots than good balls.
Don't make Hardik Pandya the Next Irfan Pathan. ? #MIvRPS
— Angel Godman Chikna (@Madan_Chikna) April 9, 2016
First, it was Rohit Sharma who was trapped in front of the stumps by Ishant as he tried to flick an in-swinging delivery. The next batsman who walked out next to bat surprised everyone. It was Hardik Pandya who was sent in as a pinch-hitter. Simmons was the next to go as he committed the same mistake as Rohit only to see the stumps shattered off Ishant’s bowling. Mumbai Indians were left tottering on 29-2 in the 4th over. The next to go was Hardik Pandya who was trying to smash everything out of the ground. He perished to Marsh for 9(11). Buttler then was dismissed by a beauty of a delivery from Marsh for a duck. Thus, MI were 30-4 at the end of 5 overs.
finally an indian bowler dismisses simmons off a legal delivery #MIvRPS
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) April 9, 2016
The most surprising fact of the match was that the Wankhede track had something for the spinners as well. Debutant Murugan Ashwin turned the ball well with his wrist spin ending up with figures of 4-16-1; he claimed the wicket of Shreyas Gopal.
Sidhu's commentary worse than Mumbai's batting. That's saying something.
— Ashish Magotra (@clutchplay) April 9, 2016
It was not that bad a batting track but all the MI batsmen perished going for big shots early on in their innings. The move to send Hardik Pandya at no. 3 did not work out well as he was not suited for such conditions. This batting performance again showed the lack of batsmen in the MI line-up who could anchor the innings the whole way. Mumbai Indians finished on 121-8 with Harbhajan Singh top scoring with 45*(30).
