As their semi-final hopes went up in smoke, a flustered Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar today held his batsmen responsible for the debacle as well as the inability to handle crunch situations.
He admitted his team lost the “crunch moments” which effectively came to an end when they were beaten by Chennai Super Kings at St George’s Park on Saturday.
Mumbai suffered a seven-wicket defeat against Chennai Super Kings which ended all their hopes to make the semi-final. With only one match left, against the table toppers Delhi Daredevils, they are stuck in seventh place.
“Throughout the tournament we lost the crunch moments,” said Tendulkar. “In the first match against Chennai everything clicked. But then our match against the Rajasthan Royals was washed out and we then had a break of seven days and we lost our momentum.”
Hayden made 60 not out off 57 balls, pacing his innings superbly as Chennai chased down a moderate Mumbai total of 147-5, winning with five balls to spare.
Chennai entrenched themselves in second place in the eight-team competition.
JP Duminy was mainly responsible for Mumbai reaching their total. The South African left-hander made 62, his fifth half-century of the tournament, off 54 balls.
It was a familiar tale for Mumbai, with Duminy holding the innings together after the team’s stars, Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar, were dismissed.
Jayasuriya threatened to play a major innings, hitting 30 off 17 balls, before top-edging a catch to point. Tendulkar made 11 before he was caught at deep mid-wicket.
Duminy and Abhishek Nayar (33 not out) put on 65 for the fourth wicket before Duminy was run out, backing up too far, in the final over.
Hayden was unusually cautious at the start of Chennai’s innings. At the mid-innings break he had scored only 15 off 28 balls in a total of 56-2.
Chennai looked in trouble when Subramaniam Badrinath was out in the 11th over but Hayden, partnered by Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, lifted his scoring rate as Chennai won comfortably in the end.
Matthew Hayden and MS Dhoni after winning
Hayden reached his fifth half-century of the campaign with a huge six off Harbhajan Singh which sailed out of the ground beyond mid-wicket.
The Super Kings Captain Dhoni wasn’t too satisfied despite the victory that ensured them a semi-final berth.
“We are committing the same mistakes in fielding. We are committing them in each and every game. If we don’t get it right in the knock-out stage, we would be in for trouble,” the India skipper warned.
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