MI sink further in their pit of loses

The most disappointing display in IPL 7 has been from MI the defending champions who are yet to commence their quota of wins. It seems unexplained as to why MI is spiraling to loss after loss in their matches in UAE as they are not such a bad outfit after all. In their last encounter during match 16 of Pepsi IPL 7 MI suffered another humiliating defeat at the hands of DD by six wickets with seven balls to go on Sunday, April 27, 2014 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah. Skipper Rohit Sharma upon winning the toss decided to bat but failed to get a biggie as he was run out on 4 after opening the innings today, in the second over. The other opener Aditya Tare lost his wicket after scoring only 8 off the bowling of Wayne Parnell. With the scorecard reading 17 for two in 3.2 overs, Ambati Rayudu and Corey Anderson came together in the middle. They aided in accumulating 37 runs for MI through power play.

Anderson perished on 13 as Jaydev Unadkat scalped him with Shahbaz Nadeem removing Rayudu on 14. After 10 overs MI were at 49 for the loss of 4 wickets which was a pathetic scene. Michael Hussey and Kieron Pollard came together at the crease but the run-rate remained under five. The MI innings took a turn for the worse when mighty Hussey left at 10 from 18 balls to spell doom for the team. Pollard sparkled for some time scoring an unbeaten 33 to help set up a respectable total for MI. It was strange that none of the batsmen showed a clear intent to anchor the innings that desperately needed a revival. Gautam, 22 and good old Harbhajan Singh on an unbeaten 10 before retiring hurt, had a good stint when so many heavy weights failed to perform. MI at the end of their allocated 20 overs managed to set 125 for 6 as the target for DD to chase down. DD bowlers Unadkat got two wickets with Nadeem and Parnell scalping one each. There were two crucial run outs the aided DD to keep the MI from flourishing. DD gave a befitting reply to chase down MI’s achievable target of 125.

DD openers Quinton de Kock scoring 16 and Murali Vijay started off their innings adding 34 in just under seven overs. de Kock got out off the bowling of Corey Anderson. Then JP Duminy stitched runs slowly and steadily with Vijay to take DD to 55 for one after 10 overs. The pair then started plundering runs at whim until MI Captain Rohit Sharma broke their partnership by scalping Vijay on 40. It was then the DD skipper Kevin Pietersen’s turn to take DD to their 100 in the 15th over. Lasith Malinga in brilliant form recently was on a rampage through the DD middle order to finish off the Duminy innings on 19 and then after three deliveries got out Dinesh Karthik on 2. However Pietersen with an unbeaten 26 and Kedar Jadhav scoring an unbeaten 14 finished off the job on hand to register a win for DD against MI with six wickets intact and seven balls to spare. Malinga’s figures were an outstanding 4-0-17-2. Murali Vijay was rewarded the man of the match for his innings of 40 in 34 balls that set the base for furthering a DD win.