Solid Mumbai await desperate Delhi

Can Virender Sehwag do it once again for Delhi?

Virender Sehwag has made 422 runs at a strike-rate of 178.81, the most in this IPL. Sachin Tendulkar is next, with 351 at 113.59. While Tendulkar might well reclaim the orange cap from Sehwag, the gaping difference between the strike-rates also reveals the gulf between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils. It has taken three outstanding performances from Sehwag to power his struggling side to three of their four wins. Tendulkar's solidity has been enough for Mumbai's strong bowling attack to defend par scores. Sehwag has had to be spectacular to make up for a misfiring batting line-up as well as a bowling unit lacking firepower.

The three most successful Mumbai bowlers have taken 42 wickets at 6.07 runs per over; Delhi's top three have 24 at 7.64. Mumbai must be one of the few Twenty20 sides whose batting serves the principal purpose of providing just enough cushion to their bowlers. What some may call a cautious approach has brought them seven wins in nine games, while even a furious churning of the playing XI hasn't worked for Delhi.

The two teams began their season facing each other at Feroz Shah Kotla, where Delhi ran in to Lasith Malinga who shot them out for 95. Their fortunes have followed the pattern of that game, and unless Sehwag can continue to fight adversity with another blinder, tomorrow could see Mumbai extend their stay at the top of the points table.

Form guide (most recent first)

Mumbai Indians: WWLWW (first in points table)
Delhi Daredevils: WLWLL (seventh in points table)

Team talk

Delhi surprisingly left out David Warner for Aaron Finch against Deccan Chargers and he should return tomorrow. They could also consider playing S Nadeem or Roelof van der Merwe as spinning options to add some variety. Apart from that, there should not be too many changes to the XI that played against Deccan.

Mumbai's problem is about dealing with too much of a good thing. Tendulkar and Ambati Rayudu have been so efficient, and Rohit Sharma so effective when required, that the others have hardly been needed. The only time they were, against Rajasthan Royals on a difficult Jaipur surface, they managed 94. That, and the fact that the top order, especially Tendulkar, has preferred accumulation to acceleration, seem to be the only niggles for Mumbai.

Predict the playing XIs for this match. Play ESPNcricinfo Team selector.

In the spotlight

Morne Morkel may have not had the impact of a Malinga, but he has been Delhi's best bowler by quite a distance. The Wankhede Stadium pitch usually offers bounce, and Morkel with his natural short of a good length should enjoy it. Delhi's chances will depend on how quickly they can get through to the Mumbai middle order, and Morkel will be crucial for that to happen.

Munaf Patel has taken as many wickets as Harbhajan Singh, at a slightly better economy-rate. His role as second seamer behind Malinga has gone unnoticed, and as always, Munaf has gone about his job quietly. He has performed both roles admirably, taking wickets when needed as well as keeping batsmen in check. Expect more of the same tomorrow.

Prime numbers

• Lasith Malinga's strike-rate and average in this IPL are both under ten, and his economy rate is below six
• Mumbai and Delhi are among the four IPL teams who have an overall scoring rate exceeding eight an over

The chatter

"If we go too hard, we can get out for 95 also. We have to decide based on the track."

Gayle�s thunderous century takes Bangalore past 200

Bengaluru: May 6, 2011

Chris Gayle would have probably watched Virender Sehwag bashing the Chargers away yesterday. Or Brendon McCullum in the first ever game of the IPL 2008.

Or he was probably teeing off at a nearby golf course at Jamaica on both occasions.

Because that is exactly what he did to the Kings XI Punjab today in the 47th game of the Indian Premier League at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Gayle smashed his second IPL century and Bangalore reached a more than competitive 205 for six in their 20 overs.

In the first two overs of the innings, he hit only one boundary, whilst jostling and swishing on the crease to try and get more. In fact, the second over was a maiden from Ryan Harris, while Praveen Kumar conceded only five in the third with Bangalore crawling to 17 without loss after three.

That was the calm before the storm came.

It took Gayle three overs to get his timing right. And when he did, there was no stopping him.

Harris was clobbered for a couple of sixes in a row, the first of three times he did that in his innings. Praveen was smacked for another two over the straight boundary in the seventh over while Piyush Chawla’s opening over and the 10th of the Bangalore innings was the third occasion when Gayle got his third brace of successive sixes.

The 100 of the innings came in the tenth over of the innings.

The bowler-bashing ceased to abate even after that. Love Ablish hammered three fours in a row in the 11th over before Abhishek Nayar was smashed for the eighth and McLaren for the ninth six of his innings. And of the team’s inning too.

Much like Sehwag yesterday, Gayle’s first 13 balls did not get him too many. He scored only six off them. He was on 29 off 23, before completing his 50 off the next five and another 50 in the next 18 balls.

In the process, Gayle became the first batsman in the history of IPL cricket to score two centuries. He got there off a straight-bludgeoned four and took only 46 balls.

Once Gayle had got to his century, he offered a difficult chance that was dropped at the boundary before getting out off the next ball.

Not that there weren’t others who got the scores.

Tillakaratne Dilshan, who has endured a poor IPL by his lofty standards, faced eight deliveries, smote four boundaries off them before offering a skier off McLaren.

Virat Kohli, who was involved in that 111-run second wicket stand with Gayle, also had four boundaries to his name, impaled by his partner at the other end. He survived a run-out chance and was afforded a life when the umpire failed to notice a nick to the wicket-keeper. He made 27 before becoming Chawla’s second victim in the same over as Gayle.

AB de Villiers had his moments under the lights too, as he splashed a couple of sixes and fours towards the end of the innings to get the Royal Challengers to more than 200. He remained unbeaten on 27.

For Punjab, Harris returned from the pounding that he had received in the second over to pick up three wickets off four balls but by then, the opposition had run away to a near-match winning total.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore went into the game with Asad Pathan replacing left-arm spinner Syed Mohammad. Love Ablish and Ryan McLaren were selected in the Punjab side.

Brief scores: RCB 205 for six in 20 overs (Chris Gayle 107, AB de Villiers 27*; Ryan Harris 3 for 38, Piyush Chawla 2 for 37) vs KXIP

Ashwin patiently waits in the wings

An hour or so after landing in Chennai, a local friend blessed with the wickedest of humour sent an sms greeting. It read, "Welcome to the land ofRavichandran Ashwin." In a few words, the message swept past a thousand or so years of history, culture, politics and Rajnikanth and went straight to the centre of India's steaming World Cup campaign.

The Indian team's future in the tournament is largely not dependent on what happens in Sunday's match in Chennai against West Indies (barring a few possibilities). Offspinner Ashwin's presence, or absence, in its bowling attack, though, may well indicate how India will head into the World Cup's knockout phase.

In the course of the last month, without bowling a single over at the World Cup, Ashwin has gone from being one of those "promising" youngsters to a mythic figure, kept hidden from the public eye so that he can be unleashed on unsuspecting batsmen at the business end of the tournament and help India storm their way through to the title.

Chepauk is where Ashwin will put on his cape and shoot into the stratosphere. That is, if the team decides to play him.

The chances of that happening are increasing, like the humidity levels in Chennai. Chepauk is the most spin-friendly of Indian tracks in this World Cup and is expected to give India's slow bowlers the advantage of extra purchase and with it, help them to turn out their most confident performance of the tournament. Ashwin's "mental stability" and toughness have been so well-advertised by his captain that he is expected to turn up in his first World Cup match, take five wickets and strike fear.

The one buffer in the midst of much overstatement is that Ashwin 's debut World Cup appearance itself may well happen on familiar ground, on his own 'land'. All 22 yards of it. From his first-class debut in December 2006, he has played a total of 15 matches (first class, List A, IPL, international) at Chepauk. He has bowled 470.1 overs for his 61 wickets at 21.50 (economy rate of 2.79, strike rate 46.20, five wickets in a match six times, ten wickets in a match twice.) The numbers are very good, but India v West Indies at a World Cup will be like none of those 15 matches.

Ashwin's coach, Sunil Subramanian, is as baffled by his student's continued absence from the XI as the rest of the country, but he is not anxious about whether Ashwin can instantly switch on for what could be a big game on Sunday. "Ashwin has the mental framework of Ravi Shastri, Anil Kumble and Venky." (Whether combined or individual doesn't really matter.) The Venky being referred to is off spinner S Venkataraghavan, with whom Ashwin has been often been compared, not merely because they share a home town but also a resemblance of craft. Ashwin, however, is a bowler who has arrived and thrived in the most modern format of the game, Twenty20. His IPL team, the Chennai Super Kings, won the IPL and Champions League T20 double last season.

Even though he belongs to the city that usually churns out more batting dashers and stylists, Ashwin went from being an opening batsman in his teenage years to concentrating on bowling, first medium pace and then offspin. The consistency and accuracy that is gold dust in the shortest version of the game came, Subramaniam says, from Ashwin's greed for improvement and his willingness to sweat.

One of the practice tools the two men used at the TNCA Academy during their training is called The Grid, a 9ft long and 4.5ft wide fluorescent tape used to perfect spot bowling, where lengths and lines can be modified for a variety of conditions. Subramaniam was given the tape for a trial by former India spinner Nilesh Kulkarni, who has patented the practice tool that is meant to help both bowlers and wicket-keepers. Subramanian says Ashwin's success rate on The Grid is close to 80%. In a match the only variant is, of course, the minor matter of the batsman facing him. The success rate could go haywire then but in aninterview with ESPNCricinfo, Ashwin spoke of enjoying the mental tussle that bowling involved. In the interview, one of the IPL dismissals he mentioned was that of a batsman he could run into should he play on Sunday - Chris Gayle.

Subramaniam tells another story about Ashwin's appetite: after a Duleep Trophy final defeat to West Zone, in which he had bowled a total of 78 overs, and batted for over two hours on the fifth day, he turned up at practice the next afternoon and bowled another 100 balls at the Academy. No matter how effective Ashwin might or might not be in the World Cup, if he is called up on Sunday, he will at least be ready.

India must only hope that they have not left it too late to use him, though Ashwin is used to waiting. In the Chennai Super Kings, he was understudy to Muthiah Muralitharan, and with India he has stepped in every time Harbhajan Singh has been unable to play. It has meant him six ODIs and four Twenty20s in less than a year and given the touring workload now charted out for the Indians over the 12 months, those numbers should increase.

Shane Warne announces IPL retirement

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne has said that the ongoing season of the IPL will be his last one as a player. He is likely to be associated with Rajasthan as a coach or advisor in the future.

"Yes this is my last year playing IPL - please come down and support RR last 2 home games v chennai & Bangalore ! We need your help !!!!", Warne wrote on the social networking site Twitter. He confirmed that this meant he would not play any more professional cricket matches after this IPL. "A big thank you to everyone that has helped me - supported me through all the ups and downs - hope you have enjoyed watching me play," he added.

Warne captained Rajasthan to victory in the inaugural season of the IPL but the franchise's fortunes slumped in the next two seasons. He has played 52 games for Rajasthan so far picking up 56 wickets at an average of 24.66. Rajasthan are currently fourth in the points table in this edition and Warne called on Rajasthan's fans to support them in their last two home games.

"We have a spirit in the squad similar to IPL 1 - it would be great to leave on a high - I'm proud of the way we have developed young players," Warne wrote. Australia allrounder Shane Watson, who plays under Warne in the IPL, told ESPNcricinfo in an interview that Warne was keen to leave the game on a winning note, whenever that happened.

"I think he's very motivated," Watson said. "After last year the way things panned out for Rajasthan, I think he's very motivated to make sure that whenever he leaves the game he leaves in a really good place. Warney's bowling unbelievably well and has been since the start of the tournament. There's only really one person who's ever been consistently able to do it as a legspinner and he's bowling absolutely beautifully."

Warne has been the face of the franchise and it is likely he will continue to be associated with them in some way. "Re next year, who knows what or if I will be involved in IPL re mentor / coaching - am focused on doing best for RR this year - see u at ground," Warne tweeted.