MI getting into the groove

Mumbai Indians have become used to indifferent starts since the 2013 Indian Premier League Season but have won all their three titles during this time. This IPL-11 they put up a better show from the start but it wasn’t enough despite a couple of cliffhanger matches.  However, a commanding show against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday gave the defending champions their first win after three stressful losses. Evin Lewis has come good to give fiery starts at the top. The West Indian opening batsman missed out in the first game to raise past fears of failure from specialist overseas opening batsmen. Big hitters like Richard Levi, Aaron Finch, Martin Guptill had failed to do justice to their reputation at the top with MI.  

However, the dust has settled and not only has Lewis come good but skipper Rohit Sharma, who had a silent first three games, came to party with his top score of 94 against RCB. With the emergence of leg-spinner Mayank Markande, the absence of an experienced spinner like Harbhajan Singh hasn’t been felt so far. Early injury concerns to Hardik Pandya and later to Ishan Kishan also seem to be over.

After missing the second game due to injury, Hardik has come back well but his throw in the fourth game unintentionally injured Kishan, after he failed to judge the ball due to an awkward bounce and it hit him near his eye, as he wasn’t wearing a helmet. This enabled Mumbai Ranji skipper Aditya Tare to make an appearance in the field and become the first player in the IPL to come in as a reserve wicketkeeper after ICC implemented new rules last year.

Hardik was even apologetic in a tweet later but Ishan seemed okay the following day.

The Rohit-led side seems to be back in its elements as it travels to Jaipur to take on the Ajinkya Rahane-led Rajasthan Royals on Sunday. They have in-form Suryakumar Yadav and Lewis to open, and Kishan and Rohit to follow. Big hitters like Kieron Pollard and Hardik haven’t yet flourished and they seem due for a big one.

Bowling has been their forte despite missing Pat Cummins due to an injury. Jasprit Bumrah, Mustafizur Rahman and Mitchell McClenaghan have been full of variations and Cummins’ replacement Adam Milne can add pace to the attack. Ben Cutting is a handful all-round option. Markande and Krunal Pandya have done well in middle overs.

“The only thing we did not do as a group in the last three games was sometimes we batted well, (but) we did not bowl well. (When) we bowled well, we did not bat well. The idea was to get both of these departments going and we wanted to be consistent with our bowling as well as batting,” the MI skipper said after the RCB match.

Neeta Ambani cheers the team.

Bonding over box cricket

After a win over Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians players and the support staff joined the two finalist NGO teams for the Reliance Foundation Education and Sports for All (ESA) cricket final at Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.     

Reliance Foundation and Mumbai Indians had hosted the 16-team box cricket tournament in Mumbai for the underprivileged children from eight participating NGOs. Ishan Kishan was laughing standing near the box cricket boundary while Hardik Pandya was at his chirpy best while playing as it allowed team to regroup.

Cheered by 1,000 underprivileged children in the gallery, captain Rohit Sharma, Hardik, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga took turns to bat and bowl for the two finalist teams Aseema and Shishu Vikas, while coach Mahela Jayawardene wore the umpire’s hat.
As a part of Reliance Foundation’s Education and Sports for All initiative, Mumbai Indians had recently hosted over 21,000 children from various NGOs across Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai for their match against Delhi Daredevils, providing the underprivileged children with an unforgetable life-time experience.