Bravo Mumbai! One more victory
Dwayne Bravo played his last match in the current Indian Premier League season, but left his team Mumbai Indians with some moments to cherish, not least his three-wicket haul and 30 useful runs as he was one of the stars of their 25-run victory over Hyderabad Deccan Chargers.
For the losers, its a nightmare that gets longer with every match as they are yet to post a win at home, and after being pushed out of the race for top positions, they are now being made to look pedestrian, a sad situation for a team with so much talent.
But Mumbai would be looking at their successes, and Sachin Tendulkar got a lot of help from a lot of people as they posted their sixth straight win in the tournament, and are beginning to look like one of the hottest teams in the race. Sanath Jayasuriya, Tendulkar, Bravo and Abhishek Nayar did a great a job with the bat, and then Ashish Nehra, Dilhara Fernando, Bravo and Nayar came to the party again, and made sure there were no hiccups.
On Sunday, almost every trick tried by Tendulkar seemed to work, as Fernando got rid of the dangerous pair of Adam Gilchrist and Rohit Sharma in one over, while Bravo came in later to remove Venugopal Rao and Ravi Teja, who were looking promising.
One would feel a bit sad for Gilchrist and players like Sharma and Venugopal Rao, who have tried desperately, but not been able to do anything to make their wide do anything worthwhile.
At the same time, the likes of Afridi are surely playing themselves out of favour for any future tournaments, though he did bowl well.
Earlier, Afridi, Venugopal Rao and Pragyan Ojha displayed some quality slow bowling as Hyderabad Deccan Chargers ensured that Mumbai Indians did not get a huge total. However, the visitors still got enough contributions to finish at 178-7.
Venugopal got rid of the rampaging Sanath Jayasuriya and Robin Uthappa, while Afridi claimed Sachin Tendulkar and Dominic Thornely.
But for the Mumbai team, Jayasuriya (36), Tendulkar (23), Abhishek Nayar (38) and Dwayne Bravo (30) ensured that Mumbai had a big enough total to make this a tight contest.
Earlier, Adam Gilchrist won the toss and opted to field.
Hyderabad, who registered one of their two wins against the Mumbai outfit and are theoretically out of the race for the semi-finals, made three changes to the side, bringing in Nuwan Zoysa, Haladhar Das and Chamara Silva, the latter two getting their first game of the IPL.
Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris and Sarvesh Kumar were left out.
Mumbai, who have seen a dramatic turnaround to their fortunes, too, were dealt a blow to their team with Shaun Pollock deemed unfit for the tie.
Dilhara Fernando, the Sri Lankan pacer, replaced him, while Rajesh Pawar, the left-arm spinner who didn't get to bowl during their win over Kolkata, was also benched while Pinal Shah was included.
Teams:
Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Robin Uthappa, Dominic Thornely, Dwayne Bravo, Abhishek Nayar, Yogesh Takawale, Pinal Shah, Rohan Raje, Dilhara Fernando, Ashish Nehra.
Hyderabad: Adam Gilchrist (captain), Shahid Afridi, Haladhar Das, Rohit Sharma, Ravi Teja, Venugopal Rao, Chamara Silva, Nuwan Zoysa, Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh, P Vijaykumar.