That said, it was very evident that Chennai played well enough, but had Mumbai Indians played in the manner that they had in the rest of the tournament, it would not have been easy for the Super Kings. So, where did the Mumbai Indians go wrong?

Toss?
Of course, that cannot be a factor, or can it? While saying that the toss played an important role in Mumbai’s loss, I am not trying to find excuses. It is a rather simple fact of life. In a tournament as long as this, expecting the pitches to remain as good as they had through the first part of the tournament is rather foolhardy. And with the pitches playing, any team batting second would find it difficult to chase; Mumbai or Chennai.

That is precisely what happened, as the Mumbai Indians collapsed to a defeat chasing a big enough total. Three out of the final four games, including the two semi-finals were won by the sides batting first and were one-sided at that.

Dropped catches:
I would have been tempted to add the lbw appeals that went against the Mumbai Indians as well, but to me, it looks like the umpires actually helped the Mumbai team by negating the two of them against Matthew Hayden. Because, till the time he was there, the Chennai Super Kings were actually struggling. And then, he got out!

Talking of the catches, Suresh Raina offered two, rather simple catches and was dropped on both the occasions. Now, Raina is still some way off being a top-notch finisher, but he has the quality nonetheless, to make you pay. And that is exactly what he did! Bye-bye match.

Where/Who was the captain?
That was a captain that at least half of the billion people watching the game had in their mind while the Mumbai Indians batted. The other half was clearly sleeping.

There were many instances of muddled thinking during the entire twenty overs of Mumbai’s innings, and even before that. For one, Abhishek Nayar had no business to bat as high as the number three position, which should have, ideally, gone to either Saurabh Tiwary or Ambati Rayadu, both of whom had done it before in the tournament, and quite well at that. Then again, if he did bat at that number, the acceleration, or at least the attempt at that, should have come much earlier than the tenth over.

The second case in point was that of Harbhajan Singh sent at number four. While I agree that this was a double-edged sword, with a good chance of coming off, what one must remember is that despite how Tiwary has batted in the tournament, he has needed 6-8 balls to get going; something that was crucial at that stage. He was the ideal number four, from where he could have stamped his authority in the later stage.

And then, even without questioning the reasons behind not sending in Kieron Pollard, it ws quite appalling to see JP Duminy bat at the number seven position in the batting. Over Pollard. Made absolutely no sense, given that not in the entire series has he ever given an impression that he can score runs at the 13 runs per over needed at that stage. To me, it was game, set, match to Chennai the moment Duminy walked out to bat.

MUMBAI INDIANS:
Strengths:
The Mumbai Indians have never qualified for the semi-finals of the IPL before and will be looking to get there for the first time. Their biggest strength would be the hard-hitting batting of three of their top-order batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and the newly recruited, Kieron Pollard. If two, or even one of them get going and go the distance, the Mumbai Indians will be in very safe hands, and on Indian pitches, life would be much easier for these guys who like to hit through the line of the ball.
Weaknesses:
Their inability to finish off games is their biggest liability. In both the editions of the tournament so far, the Mumbai side has lost some really close games, and they will need to overcome that by showing a killer instinct that they are hitherto lacking. Tendulkar was never a great captain even while leading the Indian side, and under his captaincy, the Mumbai team hasn’t done too well either, thanks, mainly due to the hunger to close out the games. This needs to change or else it may see a change at the top as well.
Players to watch out for:
Pollard. He is hugely built, and can slam the ball a fair distance. He can bowl 3-4 overs as well, with his brand of medium pace helping captains in the middle overs, while he is one of the better fielders in the side.

DELHI DAREDEVILS:
Strengths:
When a team has such a balanced line-up like Delhi Daredevils, it is not a big surprise that the bookmakers have put them as favourites to win the tournament. The opening four batsmen, are by far, the most explosive in the format of the game and there is a reasonable chance that only three out of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dave Warner will make it to the playing eleven. Warner’s form in the KFC Big Bash and the few T20Is that he played for Australia will mean that it could be a tough decision to leave him out of the side. The bowling lies in the hands of Dirk Nannes, and the other Indians in Pradeep Sangwan and Ashish Nehra, all of whom are good, left-handed pace bowlers and with Daniel Vettori and Amit Mishra in the spin department, it looks like they will be a team to watch out for.
Weaknesses:
Not too many perceptible ones. But the lack of an all-rounder is probably one of them. Also, they have a new captain in Gautam Gambhir and that will mean that there will be a lot of pressure on him to perform – Delhi have been semi-finalists in the previous two editions of the tournament after all.
Players to watch out for:
The aforementioned four batsmen aside, the Daredevils will depend on their little known Indian players in Sarabjit Ladda, Kedar Jadhav and Joginder Singh.

1st Match: Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians
When: IPL  2009 18th April 2009 10:30 GMT
Toss: Chennai Super Kings - elected to field
Winner: Mumbai Indians by 19 runs
Man of the Match: SR Tendulkar

Well done Mumbai!

2nd Match: Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Rajasthan Royals
When: IPL  2009 18th April 2009 14:30 GMT

Toss: Bangalore Royal Challengers - elected to bat
Winner: Bangalore Royal Challengers by 75 runs
Man of the Match: RS Dravid

Well done Bangalore!