6th of May will see the Deccan Chargers play the Mumbai Indians in the return match between the two teams at Pretoria.
The Mumbai Indians are currently in the sixth position in the table at seven points where as the Deccan Chargers have eight points after having won four successive matches and then losing the next three!
Although Chargers’ (6/5 at Sky Bet to beat Mumbai) losses can be attributed to the non-performance of their top order, Adam Gilchrist (3/1 at Ladbrokes to be top Deccan batsman), Herschelle Gibbs (3/1 at Ladbrokes to be top Deccan batsman) and Rohit Sharma(4/1 at Ladbrokes to be top Deccan batsman), all have had some pretty ordinary last two or three matches. However, Gilchrist’s favourite opponents seem to be Mumbai, and he could repeat his magic against them again. Dwayne Smith (6/1 at Ladbrokes to be top Deccan batsman) has looked the in-form player, but one has already seen that in a tournament such as this, one is as good as one’s last performance. Of the four, Gibbs looks a tad frustrated and Smith’s ODI of average of less than 15 tells me that consistency has never been his forte. Hence, I shall be ready to punt on the Chargers’ captain, who always looks like he a shot or two away from a big inning.
Mumbai Indians (8/11 at Stan James to beat Deccan) have had an up and down kind of a tournament so far, and would have been silently hoping for a resurgent opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar (11/4 at Paddy Power to be top Mumbai batsman) and Sanath Jayasuriya (7/2 at Ladbrokes to be top Mumbai batsman) to enter the playing arena. J.P. Duminy (4/1 at Ladbrokes to be top Mumbai batsman) has had a couple of good innings under his belt before his failure in the last match and remains my favourite to top the Mumbai Indians batting, where as the duo of Abhishek Nayar (10/1 at Bet365 to be top Mumbai batsman) and Dwayne Bravo (7/1 at Bet365 to be top Mumbai batsman) could be the surprise packages if Mumbai lost a few early wickets.
Amongst the bowlers, Zaheer Khan had a bad fall in the previous game and did not complete his four over spell. It remains to be seen whether he will be fit enough to feature in this match; especially with the ICC World T20 coming up in less than one month. If the team management does decide to rest him, Dhawal Kulkarni could make it to the playing eleven. Lasith Malinga (5/2 at Stan James to be most economic bowler) remains the perennial threat for the opposing batsmen, both, for their stumps and their feet as his toe-crushing yorkers have found their way between the bat and the pad on more occasions than one. Harbhajan Singh’s (9/2 at Stan James to be most economic) accuracy will be needed immediately after the first six overs have been completed to throttle the opposition. Bravo is a good bowler in the death overs, but, he is more of a wicket-taker than a run-saver, making it difficult to punt on him for being the most economic.
R.P. Singh (11/2 at Stan James to be most economic bowler) and Pragyan Ojha (4/1 at Stan James to be most economic bowler) have stolen the show for the Deccan Chargers after the loss of Fidel Edwards, but the bowling has lacked the edge that it possessed earlier. Gilchrist may have a trick or two up his sleeve, and if the pitch does swing around a bit, he could open the bowling with Dwayne Smith and that accentuates the bowler’s chances of getting an early wicket.
Tips:
Favourites: Mumbai Indians (8/11 at Stan James)
Top Mumbai batsman: Dwayne Bravo (7/1 at Bet365)
Top Deccan batsman: Adam Gilchrist (3/1 at Ladbrokes)
Most Economic bowler: Lasith Malinga (5/2 at Stan James)
