The IPL3 has come to an end, Mumbai Indians lost to Chennai Supe Kings after giving such a sterling performance throughtout the league.  One bad game and all was lost for them which is so sad, perhaps the next time around the semi-finals and finals could be made as a best of three affair!!  However, there is nothing to get upset or dejected about,  as the MI were always the talking point for their performances in IPL3 having improved by leaps and bounds compared to the previous editionss.

But, if we analyse the finals, we can come to a conclusion as to why Mumbai Indians fared badly and lost in the finals?  According to me there are three reasons why Mumbai Indians failed:

Firstly, the toss played an important role and CSK were lucky to  win the toss, bat first  and put up a decent total without any pressure - don't forget this was the finals!

Secondly, the poor fielding with two dropped catches of the man-of-the-match who made all the difference in the end - Suresh Raina, first by the Dilahara-Nayar combination and then by Zaheer Khan.  Mumbai Indians had to pay dearly for this.

Lastly, Mumbai Indians were not able to come up with the right opening partner for Sachin Tendulkar.  I had very very clearly mentioned about this weak  point  of the Mumbai Indians before the semi-final match against Royal Challengers Bangalore in my blog dated 20th April 2010, "DISCUSSION: Who Should Open with Sachin Against RCB?" http://www.mumbaiindians.com/mumbaipaltan/blog/blog.aspx?blogid=375.  I was very much in favour and thought  that the best and safest option for someone to open with Sachin would be Abhishek Nayar.

As it turned out, Sachin made himself available for the finals and once again Shikar Dhavan, whom so many rated highly for this position for the semi-finals and finals, crumbled under pressure on both the big occasions throwing away his wicket without any fight!!!

With tthe decline of Sanath Jayasuriya and the failure of most of the opening partners to Sachin in IPL3, it would be high time for Mumbai Indians to keep a watch on two good opening batsmen with right temperament in the coming auction for the Champions League in September and the next edition of IPL3!!...

Well done Mumbai Indians, Congrats to Sachin for showing a brave front by playing the finals inspite of five stitches to his right hand webbing and winning the player of the tournament.....

                                                                                                                                                       sanjit_blr@yahoo.com