IPL 2016, RPS vs MI: Rohit Sharma leads the way, MI cast giant shadow on Supergiants

It was with the most ungainly of the strokes he has at his disposal that Rohit Sharma completed Mumbai’s canter, their third on the spin. It was a slog-swept six off the leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin. It was atypical of Rohit, but typical of this specific innings. It was a different Rohit innings-there were more heaves and slogs than the silk and grace we are accustomed to seeing from him. The fifth ball he faced, he just cleared his front-leg and smoked Thisara Perera over midwicket. This was to be a recurring frame of the match. The Mumbai captain occasionally indulges in those strokes, but not in such frequency.

There were just two quintessential Rohit shots-one was a square drive off Perera and then another lofted straight drive off Ashok Dinda. On both instances, he rather cajoled the ball to the boundary. But most other times, he went about illustrating the more banal side, even if it looks less banal than most other batsmen around, of his batting. But whatever methods he chose to rack up those runs —383 at a batting average of 63.83 — Mumbai owe him gratitude for where they are now, second on the table.

Losing Steve, steam

Soon after Steven Smith perished for a truculent 45 off 23 balls, Pune inexplicably sequestered into a self-woven labyrinth. They were 92 for 1 in 9.1 overs when the Australian feathered an edge to Parthiv Patel. But Pune, who have seemingly shaken off their litany of under-performances, needn’t have worried. They had Saurabh Tiwary reigniting his potential after a seemingly-terminal lull in the IPL, besides MS Dhoni and Thisara Perera, padded up in the dugout. From such a nicely-laid platform, they couldn’t have lost the plot. But they did–injudicious shot-selection, flawed logic and some perseverant bowling from the Mumbai Indians were to be blamed.

On a placid batting surface, they were drawn to a false sense of security. They reckoned, much to their eventual chagrin, it was better to consolidate than sustain the tempo. In this assumption, they sent in Peter Handscomb, who had made his IPL debut as recent as the previous match. There is nothing in the Australian’s track record to suggest he has the requisite potential to blossom in this format either. He laboured around for 12 balls for mere six, the entire stay a torment. Suddenly, Mumbai turned on the squeeze. There was urgency, even desperation, on the field. Harbhajan gave Ambati Rayudu an earful when the latter couldn’t intersect a boundary near the ropes, despite a full-stretch dive. The off-spinner, after a wayward start to the IPL, had shown resurgence in the last couple of matches. He conceded just a boundary in four and choked Tiwary and later Dhoni.

The Pune skipper’s entry didn’t change the momentum either, as struggled for timing in the wake of a spirited spell from Mitchell McClenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah. He and Tiwary, once called the Dhoni clone, combined 33 runs but in 32 balls. And both departed when the time was ripe to up the ante. Consequently, Pune, who were at one juncture heading to a total in excess of 180, settled for 159.