Sport - Cricket

Both teams badly need to win

— Photo: S. Subramanium

MASTER CLASS: Mumbai Indians’ Shaun Pollock, Ashish Nehra and Robin Uthappa watch skipper Sachin Tendulkar practise on the eve of the crucial encounter against Delhi Daredevils.

NEW DELHI: A peeved Sachin Tendulkar slamming the umpire is indeed a bizarre happening. Known to maintain a dignified silence on many fronts, this icon of world cricket has steadily kept a distance from contentious issues.

So, when Tendulkar speaks his mind — he had expressed his displeasure at a couple of rulings on run-out appeals by Suresh Shastri, the third umpire in Mumbai Indians’ match against Kings XI Punjab — it gets noticed. The Mumbai outfit lost to Kings XI Punjab in a tantalising last-ball finish in front of a crestfallen home crowd.

The first edition of the IPL has had some dark moments and controversies have dogged the competition right through. A public castigation of an umpire must have been the last thing on the mind of the authorities of this tournament, termed as a private venture by the ICC. The fact that criticism has come from an icon against a Mumbai-based umpire certainly adds a new dimension to the quality of umpiring in the IPL.

Two other umpires — Amesh Saheba and G.A. Pratapkumar — have already incurred match suspensions in this tournament.

The Mumbai camp is now looking forward to the crucial match against Delhi Daredevils at the Ferozeshah Kotla here on Saturday. A win should keep Mumbai on course for a semifinal berth while Delhi would love to hang in there with a desperately needed victory.

The unsparing rain on Thursday left Delhi in a difficult spot despite the hard work by the ground-staff headed by Radhey Shyam Sharma. “We just can’t afford to relax at all now. All of us are praying we get a full game,” said Delhi skipper Virender Sehwag, who will find his long time State-mate Ashish Nehra in the rival camp.

“Of course it feels odd,” confessed Nehra, “to compete against Viru (Sehwag), Gautam (Gambhir), Rajat (Bhatia), Shikhar (Dhawan). But then Aakash (Chopra) and Ishant (Sharma) would have done the same had there been a match on Thursday (against Kolkata Knight Riders). I am certainly not the only one in this IPL playing against his State team.”

Nehra, who last played a Test in April 2004 against Pakistan and a one-day match in September 2005 against New Zealand, has battled a series of injuries and bad form.

“Twenty20 is a good concept and I have enjoyed it as much as the others. Personally, it has given me an opportunity to test myself against some good batsmen. It is a great test of skills because you have to avoid being hit off every ball. It has been very challenging so far,” said the left-arm seamer.

With ten wickets in this tournament, Nehra, like L. Balaji of Chennai Super Kings, has proved his fitness. Balaji’s last appearance for India was in a one-day match in August 2005 against Sri Lanka in Dambulla.

The teams (from): Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, A.B. de Villiers, Rajat Bhatia, Shoaib Malik, Dinesh Karthik, Glenn McGrath, Mohammad Asif, V. Yomahesh, Pradeep Sangwan, Farveez Maharoof, Mithun Manhas, Brett Geeves, Manoj Tiwary, Amit Mishra and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (capt.), Sanath Jayasuriya, Dominic Thornely, Robin Uthappa, Abhishek Nayar, Shaun Pollock, Dilhara Fernando, Yogesh Takawale, Dhaval Kulkarni, Rohan Raje, Ashish Nehra, Andre Nel, Dwayne Smith, Rajesh Pawar, Saurabh Tiwary.

Match starts at 8 p.m.

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