IPL 2016, MI vs KKR: Mumbai Indians do what they do best- beat KKR

The TRP ratings had indicated that this was one of the dullest IPLs, and going by the quality of cricket on Thursday night at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, it was easy to understand why. Twelve bowlers rotated the arm and barring Sunil Narine and Harbhajan Singh there wasn’t much imagination or skill from the rest as the game meandered away to an unsurprising finish. Tame short balls? Tick. Slower ones without any guile? Tick. Spinners that hardly spun? Tick. Jaydev Unadkat bowled short, a crime at his pace; Umesh Yadav was all over the place; Tim Southee was there and thereabouts without being potent, Jasprit Bhumrah had one of his lean days, his yorkers struggling to land in place; the Pandya brothers were pretty average, Andre Russell continued with his buffet of length deliveries that weren’t going scare anyone on this track, and Shakib Al Hasan too had an off day, unable to do much beyond rolling across his deliveries. There wasn’t much spark on display from most bowlers, barring Sunil Narine and Harbhajan SIngh.

Narine, Harbhajan show skill

Narine’s new action doesn’t hold much mystery. The right arm pushes up and over the shoulder and he seems to float his deliveries across. There doesn’t seem to be much happening even after release, but it isn’t as easy and simple as that, of course, as the batsmen found out. The changes in pace were smart, and he seems to do just about enough off the track – without any great deviation or dips in trajectory – to keep the batsmen honest, and struggling a touch for timing. And he reaped the rewards, but it was always clear that his was going to be in a losing cause, considering the tripe his team-mates served up.

Mumbai’s Harbhajan had a pretty good day. It’s easy to spot his good times with the ball these days – when he strives to bowl slow, he seems to thrive. He had the best Kolkata batsman Gautam Gambhir in trouble with his skidders from round the stumps – time and again, Gambhir was playing for the turn and would find the ball roll dangerously past his stumps off the inside edge. The former Indian team-mates even had a laugh about it after one such instance. In the past, on occasions, it was easy to spot his deliveries that would skid in (to the left-handers) from round the stumps as he would release it with his index finger on the seam. On his good days, he releases it like an off-break but the fingers sort of roll on the side of the ball, and as Gambhir found out last night, it wasn’t easy to pick.

Rohit drops anchor

Rohit Sharma didn’t have to extend himself at all. From the first ball when Unadkat served up a short ball that flew over midwicket boundary. The Kolkata bowlers hardly managed a sequence of good deliveries at Sharma, whose intent to stay till the end was clear. He eschewed all risky shots, preferring to either drive through the off-side field or pull the short ones. Those who managed to stay up through the dreary bowling were treated with a fabulous extra cover drive off Andre Russell in the 14th over. It was a full-pitched delivery and Rohit’s bat-swing was so fluid and his placement so impeccable that the ball plummeted through the gap on the off.

Pollard biffs

It was Pollard, however, who enlivened the dull evening. A 17-ball 51 should thrill – and it did to an extent – but when it comes so easily, without the bowlers testing him, it does feel a touch flat. Not that it was Pollard’s fault. Mumbai were 106 for 4 in 13 overs when Pollard entered and his breezy knock ensured they won with two overs to spare. R Sathish is a smart bowler on most days who varies his pace and lengths but he hurled a lot of dross on Thursday night. Full, short, on the legs – and Pollard just stood there and swung or swatted as his mood seized him. One flew straight and landed on the second tier way beyond the sightscreen. Unadkat too didn’t test him and Pollard kept swinging merrily.