Our batting hasn’t been consistent | Column by Sanath Jayasuriya

POWER POINT

SANATH JAYASURIYA ON CONTRIBUTING MORE

DESPITE Mumbai Indians having one of the best-balanced teams in the tournament, we are making hard work of our qualification to the semifinals. There is still time, but the loss against Team Hyderabad on Wednesday was a blow. We should have won that game.

I thought our seam bowlers did a terrific job to restrict Hyderabad to 145 for 6, especially as we were missing Zaheer (Khan) with a shoulder injury. Dhawal Kulkarni did brilliantly though as his replacement, snaring Gibbs early and conceding just 21 runs from his four overs. However, our batting, not for the first time, has not been consistent enough. We have usually had one or two players settle down, but we are not performing as a unit. The top-order of Team Chennai and Team Delhi have performed as a unit and we have to do the same.

Credit to RP Singh, though. He was been superb for Team Hyderabad this season and fully deserves his place in India’s T20 squad for England. Without obvious straining, he hits the pitch, bowling a heavy ball, and gets some movement. He can be a real handful.

Once again, after RP’s double strike to dismiss Sachin and me, it was JP Duminy who calmly re-built the innings. The more I see of him the more I’m impressed. He has been our leading scorer by a distance and our biggest failure is not being able to support him.