That's Deccan's win record so far, announcing themselves as genuine contenders as the team to beat along with Delhi. Mustering only 168/9 thanks to some ferocious death bowling from Malinga and Bravo, Deccan proved that they can defend chaseable totals with some fearsome pace of their own. Oh, did I forget Pragyan Ojha? With wickets of Tendulkar, Duminy, and Dhawan, one would be indeed blind to overlook his fine effort.
As it is with most teams having gained decent momentum while batting, Mumbai would feel mildly aggrieved that the strategic timeout came at the most inappropriate time for them. Tendulkar was shepherding Duminy like a Master and a consummate win looked on the cards. Post-break, Tendulkar added only one more run before getting out and the rest of Mumbai followed him pretty cheaply, with the exception of Harbhajan Singh. That said, Ojha was the only candidate for the MOM award, Having had the best of some acclaimed batters in this competition so far, it would be really interesting to see how he fares against Hayden, Sehwag, and Gayle, the most explosive openers in this edition.
Sunday's matches are Bangalore vs Delhi and Punjab vs Rajasthan. The first clash would probably see Delhi take it, given Bangalore's poor run and Delhi's excellent win over Chennai. The second one will involve the Pathan brothers, both crucial to their captains. Yusuf gave another demonstration of how murderous he can be against spinners against Kolkata the other day while Irfan got his bowling boots on and managed to get 3 vital wickets in their win against Bangalore. An even contest is in the offing, as Rajasthan's top order is not firing that well while Punjab's bowling still looks a bit weak.
Some news about players now. Andrew Flintoff has returned home to undergo knee surgery, which would mean that he will be ruled out of the England-West Indies series. This news is bad for England, no doubt, but, in hindsight, they would feel relieved that this happened now and not just before the Aussies come visiting for the Ashes in May. Also, Rahul Dravid is expected to return home on paternity leave (maybe, he has already), to be with his wife expecting their second child. And as the rest of England's squad are expected to report for the WI series next week, which would see KP leave them as well, Bangalore would miss 2 of their starting middle-order batters. More concern for Bangalore's think-tank.
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