IPL-5: Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers eye winning ways

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Both Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians come into Monday’s game off defeats.

While Mumbai lost to Pune Warriors by 28 runs chasing a sub-par 129, Chargers faltered in pursuit of a much bigger target – 194 – against the Chennai Super Kings.

However, both teams have reason to feel they have the edge in Monday’s game. While Mumbai have the advantage of having tasted success early, that too against Chennai in the tournament opener, Chargers’ ace up their sleeve is the fact that they spent longer training in the local conditions here and have played a game on this wicket, so they will know what to expect.

Neither team will be taking the other for granted. Both games involving Mumbai were low–scoring encounters, where the batsmen put up contrasting displays while chasing. While they did enough to cross the line against Chennai, they faltered badly against the Warriors. The only bright spot for Mumbai so far has been the aggressive South African Richard Levi.

The Chargers’ batting display on Saturday didn’t do enough to give an idea of where the batsmen are form-wise and it is for this reason, if for nothing else, that their efforts against Mumbai on Monday would be a point of interest. It remains to be seen whether the team’s regular captain, Kumar Sangakkara, who arrived from Sri Lanka on Sunday afternoon, will be available for selection.

The Mumbai attack was impressive in both the games. Lasith Malinga is the pick of the bowlers with four wickets so far while skipper Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Kieron Pollard have also showed promise.For the Chargers, Dale Steyn and Daniel Christian were exemplary with two wickets each. Left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma also impressed on debut.

Cameron White elected to bowl first in the first game, expecting dew to play a role later and as it later turned out, it wasn’t the case and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect similar conditions on Monday.

Both teams would want to bat first and get a good total on the board as the wicket could well become slower and lower as the game progresses, making it tougher for the chasing team.

Key players

* Daniel Christian for Deccan: The burly South Australian has been in good touch lately and was one of the key performers for the Chargers in their match against Chennai Super Kings. If he can back up his excellent bowling with some explosive willow-work, it just might swing the fortunes in his team’s favour.

* Richard Levi for Mumbai: The big-hitting South African was instrumental in Mumbai Indians winning the season-opener against CSK. In the second game against Pune , Levi got out for a duck and they ended up losing that match. That is an indication of how just crucial he is.