Mumbai Indians’ lacklustre performance in Jaipur against Rajasthan Royals, has left them with a mountain to climb, if they want to maintain their hopes of adding the Champions League to their Indian Premier League (IPL) title.
With only three matches left in their qualifying group, Mumbai are almost in a knock out situation already, where one defeat will almost certainly signal the end of their interest in the competition.
Their opponents in the next match are the Otago Volts from New Zealand, who have already had to win through the qualifying process to reach this stage.
A situation that they took by storm, winning their three matches, and qualifying with some ease. They may have come to the competition as unknowns, and rank outsiders, but their performances so far, have got people sitting up and tipping them as possible outsiders for the tournament.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at Otago’s performance so far, as they clearly set out to make an impression, with a solid preparation in place, to give themselves every chance of success.
They played four Twenty20 matches in just eight days in Sri Lanka, winning all of them, and that match practice clearly stood them in good stead, by the way in which they hammered Faisalabad Wolves in their first match and Kandurata Maroons in the second.
It was expected that the Sunrisers Hyderabad would offer a true test of their abilty, but they too were swept aside in the final qualifier.
Brendon McCullum, the Otago captain, has been in scintillating form, and an already solid batting line up, now has an extra classy, intimating presence.
Hamish Rutherford has been his usual solid self at the top, while Jimmy Neesham has shown himself a good player of spin. Add to that, the boundary striking ability of Ryan ten Doeschate’s, with his bowling ability as well, and it isn’t difficult to understand, why this team has now won 13 consecutive T20 matches.
However, Otago’s have so far played in Mohali, where the pitch offered assistance to their medium pacers. In Ahmedabad, the pitch is likely to be batsmen friendly, and Mumbai’s strength is in their batting line up. We could be in for a titanic qualifying clash.