As the IPL Season 8 draws towards the business end, pressure to stay in the cash-rich tournament has got monumental on Kings Eleven Punjab (KXIP) and Mumbai Indians (MI) as both the sides are languishing at the bottom of the points table with just 4 points from 7 games. On run rate, MI slightly ahead with -0.553 compared to Punjab’s -1.093, but their miseries are far from getting over as they have been extremely inconsistent so far. Bowling has been a huge disappointment for MI with Malinga barring the game against Sunrisers, where he picked up 4 four wickets, has looked and out of sorts so far. Their woeful bowling was put to the sword by CSK and DD, who scored heavily against them. Particularly against Delhi at Kotla, they let lost the grip by allowing the home side post 190 after containing them to 60 for 1 at the end of first 9 nine overs. After that, Mumbai required good batting display to get over the line. But things happened exactly the opposite as they fell well short of the target and lost the game by 37 runs. Poor display calls for collective efforts and not depend only on Rohit, Pollard and Harbhajan to win matches from now onward. Likes of Unmukt, Parthiv, Ambati and others must chip in if MI are to qualify for the playoffs.
While Punjab is losing the sheen due to the below par performance by high profile T20 players like Maxwell, Bailey and Sehwag, Their batting performance has let down KXIP in the high-profile tournament. And if their 20-run loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad while chasing 151 in the previous encounter has anything to go by, KXIP will have to pull up socks and start ticking the boxes or face early ouster from the tournament. Bailey must push himself ahead at No 3 and drop the out-of-form Maxwell down the order to set things right. Bcoz Bailey takes time to settle in, and batting at 5 and 6 does not give him the freedom to do that. While Maxwell needs to rediscover his midas touch that helped KXIP reach the final in the last edition.
Author – This Article is written by Vikas Das.