By IANS,
Mumbai : Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers will be desperate for their first victory in Indian Premier League (IPL) when they meet each other at the newly-built D.Y. Patil stadium here Sunday.
Both teams have lost their opening three matches and are languishing at the bottom of the points table. It would be difficult for Sunday’s loser to bounce back.
Mumbai Indians will be under extra pressure ahead of the encounter, as uncertainty still looms large over the availability of their iconic skipper Sachin Tendulkar. He has missed all the three matches of Mumbai Indians because of a groin injury. To add salt to the wounds, stand-in captain Harbhajan Singh is in the eye of storm after reportedly slapping Sreesanth in the match against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali Friday night.
The Punjab team has made an complaint. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already slapped a show cause notice seeking an explanation on the controversial incident within two days. However, he has been cleared to play against the Chargers Sunday.
Under these circumstances, fans would eagerly wait to see Tendulkar take the field Sunday and inspire the team to their first win in the Twenty20 extravaganza.
It would also add strength to the struggling batting line-up of Mumbai Indians. Sanath Jayasuriya is yet to explode, while his opening partner Luke Ronchi looked unimpressive. Former South African all-rounder Shaun Pullock, Robin Uthappa and young Abhishek Nayar are the only three to have played some useful knocks.
Deccan Chargers, on the other hand, is packed with some of the big hitters of the game.
Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs have the power to finish any opposition on their day and Mumbai Indians bowlers would have a tough task at hand Sunday to contain them.
However, their skipper V.V.S. Laxman looked lost in this format of the game. After having failed in the middle order in the first two matches, the elegant right-hander opened the innings against Rajasthan Royals but the result was the same.
Laxman also has a problem in his bowling department. The Chargers’ bowlers failed to save a mammoth 214 against a star-less Rajasthan Royals. Although, Andrew Symonds hit the fastest Twenty20 century against Royals, he proved too expensive with the bowl.
Squad: Mumbai Indians
Sachin Tendulkar, Loots Bosman, Ankeet Chavan, Siddharth Chitnis, Gaurav Dhiman, Dilhara Fernando, Harbhajan Singh, Sanath Jayasuriya, Musavir Khote, Dhawal Kulkarni, Lasith Malinga Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey, Rajesh Pawar, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohan Raje, Luke Ronchi, Pinal Shah, Swapnil Singh, Yogesh Vijay Takawale, Dominic Thornely, Saurabh Tiwary, Robin Uthappa, Vikrant Yeligati.
Deccan Chargers:
VVS Laxman, Sanjay Bangar, Halhadar Das, Herschelle Gibbs, Adam Gilchrist, Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, Pragyan Ojha, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Sarvesh Kumar, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, RP Singh, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas, Venugopal Rao, Paidikalva Vijaykumar, Arjun Yadav, Nuwan Zoysa.