Their title defence having ended early with awhimper, Mumbai Indians would look to salvage some of their battered reputationwith at least a win when they take on Sydney Sixers in an inconsequential GroupB match of the Champions League Twenty20 here Monday.
Mumbai Indians came into the tournament as one of thefavourites with a star-studded squad but they have failed to live up to theirreputation, losing two matches and one game being abandoned due to rain.
Group toppers Sydney Sixers, along with Highveld Lions, havecashed in onto the disappointing show by Mumbai and the other IPL team in thegroup, Chennai Super Kings to qualify for the semifinals with three wins on thetrot.
Mumbai Indians lost their opening match to Highveld Lions byeight wickets before their next tie against Yorkshire was washed out. They onceagain failed to re-group and went down to Chennai Super Kings by a narrowsix-run margin last night.
The Harbhajan Singh-led side would look to end thetournament on a high but with the form their Monday's opponents are in, itwon't be easy for them to do that and they will have to play out of theirskins.
Mumbai have performed reasonably well with the bat, havingposted almost identical scores (157 and 156) in the first two matches againstLions and Yorkshire respectively before scoring 167 for seven while chasing 174against Chennai Super Kings.
While West Indian Dwayne Bravo has managed to get some runsup the order, Mumbai have been hugely let down by Sachin Tendulkar's lack ofform as the veteran batsman could manage only 16, 7 and 2 from the threematches he had played so far.
Mumbai's batting unit revolves around Tendulkar and he willhave to come up with a big score tomorrow to help his team put enough runs on boardagainst a strong Australian unit.
The Indian outfit would also hope that the likes of RohitSharma, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik and Kieron Pollard, who have all showntheir potential in one match or the other in the tournament so far, stand uptogether and lend some solidity to the middle-order.
MI's bowling unit, with the exception of pacer Lasith Malinga, has completelylooked off-colour and if Mumbai want to have any chance of registering aface-saving win tomorrow, the bowlers will have to fire in unison.
Sydney Sixers, meanwhile, would need to guard against complacency if they wantto maintain their winning momentum going into the last four stage.
Sixers have looked formidable in the tournament so far and with the presence ofShane Watson, Brad Haddin, Steven Smith, Micheal Lumb in their ranks, the sidepossesses a strong batting line-up.
Their main strength, however, remains the bowling which saw them restrictingYorkshire to a meagre 96. They then allowed Lions to score a modest 137 for nine.
Both Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins have been among the wickets and withall-rounder Moises Henriques and experienced Watson also coming good with theball, the team has the arsenal to tame any side in the tournament.
The Teams (From):
Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Richard Levi, DwayneSmith, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Thisara Perera, KieronPollard, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, DhawalKulkarni, Suryakumar Yadav.
Sydney Sixers: Brad Haddin (capt; wk), Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, MoisesHenriques, Michael Lumb, Nathan McCullum, Nic Maddinson, Ian Moran, PeterNevill, Steve O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, DominicThornely, Shane Watson.
Match Starts at 9pm IST.