The worst bowling attack of IPL 8 finally clicks as Mumbai Indians make playoffs

Heading into their must-win final league game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians had the worst bowling attack in this season’s Indian Premier League. They had taken just 59 wickets and had given away 2232 runs in 13 matches and were up against an in-form top three in Sunrisers’ David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques. However, against the odds, Mumbai’s bowling attack finally clicked and led them to massive nine-wicket win that lifted them to second place in the points table. [caption id=“attachment_2249560” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Lasith Malinga. BCCI[/caption] Good teams make good things happen at the right time. Mitchell McClenaghan and Lasith Malinga bowled an excellent opening spell to remove Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner — a pair that has scored more than 40 percent of Hyderbad’s total runs in the tournament. Mumbai’s spinners, J Suchith and Harbhajan Singh, then tightened the noose the pacers had tied. Henriques, Eoin Morgan, KL Rahul and Naman Ojha all followed Warner and Dhawan in quick succession as SRH were left reeling at 61 for 6 from just 12.1 overs. It felt unreal. The SRH batsmen simply couldn’t cope with an attack that most teams have found easy to score runs against. Usually a bowler or two are responsible for something like this but Rohit Sharma used seven bowlers and apart from Hardik Pandya, everyone turned up (Pandya was never brought back after giving away 11 runs in his only over). Even Malinga, who has given away the most number of runs among the top five bowlers in the IPL, went for just 4.25 runs an over. He even came up with a trademark slinging yorker — something that hasn’t been seen this season as often as we are used to. Young Suchith went from his usual economical self to Uncle Scrooge — finishing with figures of two for 14 in three overs. This was the “hunting in a pack” that MS Dhoni and team India boasted about during the World Cup and SRH’s batsmen were overwhelmed and devoured. Their longest partnership lasted just 26 balls. Mumbai have an uncanny knack of making the playoffs after being written off early in the tournament. Last year, they lost their first five matches and still made it. This year, they lost their first four games and made it. The cherry on the cake has been the form of Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel. In the last five matches, the former has scored 168 runs and the latter has 149. A couple of victories in must-win matches would have lifted team morale immensely, and Mumbai have a head of steam going into the playoffs. That said, they are still second worst side in terms of wickets taken (69 in 14 matches) but even that is misleading as the only team to have taken fewer wickets – Rajasthan Royals – played two fewer matches on account of washouts. And Mumbai are still the worst in terms of runs conceded (2371) and the only team in the top four which has a negative net run-rate. If Mumbai are go to deep in the playoffs, they’ll need their bowlers to defy the odds all over again.