Sidelights:
The Mumbai Indians’ sorry tale continues even after their fourth outing of the IPL this year. Normally after one or two losses teams tend to find their weaknesses and starts winning a few games but not MI. Putting marginal or below par scores on the board not letting their bowlers to bowl at good totals. But then that should also be not the excuse may teams have even defended small totals, for example KXIP against KKR just a night before. Somehow the team is not firing despite having big names like John Write, Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar and now even Ricky Ponting in their think tank. Now MI can hardly afford to lose a game if they still want to defend their title.
 IPL 7 | Match 16 | DD Vs MI
Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah
Toss: MI and elected to bat first
Playing XIs:
MI: Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Corey Anderson, Ambaty Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Kieron Pollard, CM Gautam, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Lasith Malinga
DD: Quinton de Kock, Murali Vijay, Jean Paul Duminy, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Wayne Parnell, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammad Shami, Jaydev Unadkat
Mini Score Card
MI 125/6 (20) Run rate 6.25
Kieron Pollard 33* (30) | Jaydev Unadkat 2/29 (4)
CM Gautam 22 (18) | Wayne Parnell 1/17 (4)
DD 126/4 (18.5) Run rate 6.69
Murali Vijay 40 (34) | Lasith Malinga 2/17 (4)
Kevin Pietersen 26* (18) | Corey Anderson 1/16 (2)
Result: DD won by 6 wickets
Points: DD 2 (Total 4), MI 0 (Total 0)
Man of the match: Murali Vijay (DD)
Umpires: Aleem Dar | Vineet Kulkarni | AK Chaudhary (3rd) | K Bharatan (Reserve)
Match Referee: Graeme Labrooy
How they played the game:
Powerplay: MI 37 runs, 2 wickets | DD 37 runs 0 wickets
First 50 runs: MI 62 balls | DD 55 balls
50-100 runs: MI 44 balls | DD 33 balls
Extras: DD 11 (6 LB, 4 Wd, 1 NB) | MI 9 (2 LB, 2 Wd, 5 PEN)
Best Partnership
MI: 6th wicket – 40 runs off 30 balls between Gautam 22 (18) and Pollard 13* (12)
DD: 2nd wicket – 45 runs off 33 balls between Vijay 30 (17) and Duminy 14 (16)
Fours and SIXES
MI 10 Fours (3 by Gautam, 2 each by Pollard and Anderson, 1 each by Tare, Rayudu and Harbhajan Singh) | 3 SIXES (2 by Pollard and 1 by Harbhajan Singh)
DD 10 Fours (4 by Vijay and 2 each by de Kock, Pietersen and Jadhav) | 2 SIXES (1 each by Vijay and Pietersen)
Important facts of the match
- 5 penalty runs awarded to DD when the ball struck the helmet at 4.1 overs
In the PIC: Ricky Ponting and Kevin Pietersen chatting with each other just before the start of the game.
Picture Courtesy: ESPN – CricinfoÂ
