By IANS,
East London : After suffering two consecutive defeats, Mumbai Indians will be hoping to bounce against table toppers Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Buffalo Park here Friday.
After Wednesday’s 19-run loss to Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians are sitting just above bottom placed Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL table. With another six matches left, Mumbai Indians don’t have much time to find their winning ways and make the semi-finals.
Mumbai Indian’s chief mentor Shaun Pollock said the race for the semi-final spots was wide open and that his team can still make the last four.
“The tournament is not over for us. There is no doubt that we can still bounce back, but if we keep losing, we will keep making life difficult for ourselves. We have still got the ability to win and get through. I think if we look at the conditions they are obviously foreign to high percentage of the players in each team. So it hasn’t really been a line-up that is settled,” said Pollock.
“I think in many ways, the overseas players have been the ones who have won the games for your teams. And I think that’s maybe the reason why. It’s very open, it’s going to be a tightly fought contest on who gets into the semis. We might find that the last few games are very, very important whereas last year they weren’t so,” he added.
Pollock hoped that Mumbai Indians skipper Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya will come up with good knocks against the formidable Daredevils. But he was happy that youngsters like Pinal Shah and Jean Paul Duminy have come through with crucial knocks in crunch situations.
For high riding Daredevils, the good news is that their regular skipper Virender Sehwag is likely to be back in the team. In his absence, Gautam Gambhir led the side to a nine-wicket win over Knight Riders.
Gambhir is happy with his form and said that Sehwag’s return to the side will make Daredevils the most formidable batting side.
“I have always felt comfortable batting with Viru. He is the most dangerous batsman. If he comes back into the side then we would be a very strong batting side,” said Gambhir.
Gambhir said that when they take on Mumbai Indians, they will also keep a tab on the points table.
“Yes, we are keeping a tab on the points table. With the standings changing every day we have to keep an eye on the points,” he said.