IPL 2018

Late bloomers MI aim to repeat past heroics

by Purnima Malhotra • Published on

MI now need three wins on the trot. © BCCI

Mumbai Indians aren't new to being involved in a mid-table muddle, having risen from the proverbial ashes time and again in the 11-year history of the Indian Premier League. Being the most successful side in the first decade of IPL, MI have earned the notorious sobriquet of late risers, of late bloomers. And rightfully so.

The first two of Mumbai's three title wins defied all that the early season trends had to indicate and were a culmination of campaigns that had begun ever so drastically. Back in 2013, Mumbai had a 50-50 win-loss record before a woefully out of form Ricky Ponting made way for Rohit Sharma the captain. The Mumbaikar guided the franchise to 10 wins out of the next 13 to help them lay their hands on the glittering trophy for the very first time.

The situation was even more desperate the following year, with Mumbai having lost all five games in the first leg of the competition that had to be held in UAE due to the elections back home. The Rohit-led side went on to spectacularly win seven of the remaining nine games in the second leg, moved back to India, to qualify for the playoffs.

In fact, Wankhede was a witness to easily one of the best jailbreaks in the competition's history that year when a jubilant Aditya Tare took off on a wild celebratory run after hitting his first ball of the game for a six that took MI to the playoffs after chasing down a mammoth 190 off just 14.3 overs. Who could forget the rare moment caught on camera where an angry Rahul Dravid, then the mentor of Rajasthan Royals, flung his cap in the dugout as James Faulkner sent down a full toss for a delivery that ended their campaign in heartbreak after having done most things right throughout the first half of the virtual knockout clash. Mumbai couldn't defend their title in 2014 but the heist and the turnaround story easily made it as one of the top first-decade highlights of IPL.

The script seemed very familiar yet again in the year 2015 when MI had just two points out of a possible 12 at nearly at the halfway stage in the competition. They won nine of the next ten, including the final, to add a second title to their credit.

Two years from then, MI find themselves in a similar hellhole again. The 'late bloomers' are now at a stage where a defeat can seriously dent their playoffs chances. With only three games remaining and 10 points on the board, MI are confined to the fifth spot in the points table. The position, though, is no indication of how wobbly their campaign seemed in its early days.

MI had one win from their first six games, against a troubled Royal Challengers Bangalore. But once the batting settled down, Mumbai stormed back into the reckoning in their own typical style, with four victories in the next five outings. Adversity seems to bring out the best in them, reckons all-rounder Krunal Pandya. Mumbai, after all, have a 68 percent win record in the last five games league games since the year they won their first title.

It only works in their favour that of their three remaining games, two are at home and the final one is an away fixture against the bottom-glued Delhi Daredevils. However, three wins on the trot would require doing a lot of what they've been doing right recently to be still alive in the playoffs talk. The good news is, they have years worth of experience of emerging out of the hole they dug for themselves in the first-half of the season.

"Mumbai cricket is known for that.. when you're pushed to the wall, then you come out with your best," said the Baroda allrounder who first represented the Mumbai Indians in 2016. "But when you start playing for any tournament... we don't think we will have to lose games and win in the latter half. It's just that every game you go out there, you have to win. Somewhere down the line over a period of time, Mumbai Indians have played their best cricket when they are down and out," he noted.

Hopefully, for MI's sake, they continue to play their best cricket.

© Cricbuzz

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