The team started the session with a short huddle, followed by a long game of rugby. Aaron Finch and Parthiv Patel then took guard in the nets against Lasith Malinga & Co. as icon Sachin Tendulkar sat and watched. He probably knew Mumbai's problem area: their bowling. A score of 168 was fairly good, but Mumbai's bowlers made it all too easy for the Knights.
Placed at the Wankhede premises are large billboards featuring Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Corey Anderson and Harbhajan Singh. Written beneath each other their animated, aggressive and almost life-like posters are three words: 'apun ke superstars'.
Mumbai Indians love coming back to their home, to a ground they've made their den. There's a sense of familiarity, festivity and freedom when Mumbai Indians play at the Wankhede. They have good reason to feel so.
After a poor start last season, Mumbai made it to the eliminator after four wins at the Wankhede, losing only to the Chennai Super Kings. It was on this very ground that they broke their five-match losing streak against Kings XI Punjab, the team they will face on Sunday.
No wonder, then, that Rohit & Co. were pretty upbeat during training on Saturday despite coming off a loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL opener.
The team started the session with a short huddle, followed by a long game of rugby. Aaron Finch and Parthiv Patel then took guard in the nets against Lasith Malinga & Co. as icon Sachin Tendulkar sat and watched. He probably knew Mumbai's problem area: their bowling. A score of 168 was fairly good, but Mumbai's bowlers made it all too easy for the Knights.
Malinga has been off-colour since the World Cup, R Vinay Kumar didn't threaten much, Corey Anderson and Jasprit Bumrah were expensive. Pragyan Ojha, with his new action, looks half the bowler he was, and Harbhajan Singh too went for runs.
But Anderson played down the bowling worries, saying it was just one of those days when the unit didn't click.
"We put up a good batting performance in last game but dropped a bit down on the bowling. If we can focus on those little areas, I am sure we can get home against the Kings," he said.
The Kings, too, have a defeat behind them, but unlike Mumbai, it was their batting that let them down against the Rajasthan Royals on Friday.
Having done a bus journey from Pune from Mumbai on Saturday, half of the Kings' players decided to give their optional training session a miss, including skipper George Bailey, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, Murali Vijay and Axar Patel.
Those who did turn up, however, didn't show an ounce of tiredness. Glenn Maxwell was the first to go into the nets, sending those balls to the empty chairs of the stadium. David Miller too got into the act, and so did all the 13 Punjab players on the ground.
Both teams know that another loss, and it can all go downhill fairly soon. But neither looked in that mood on the eve of the match.
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