Top guns need to fire for Mohali

Top guns need to fire for Mohali
Mohali would need their star batsman Yuvraj Singh to fire if they want to win against Mumbai.

India batsman Yuvraj Singh, who is credited with hitting six sixes in one over of a T20 international, however, has been a shadow of his former self, lacking in confidence.

In the IPL 3, the left-handed powerhouse has been in awful form so far.

Barring one match-winning shot, an audacious switch-hit four off the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan in the Super Over against Chennai, he has shown little indication of his destructive prowess.

In that match, his innings of 43 helped Mohali end the match in a tie against Chennai, which led to a Super Over, in which Yuvraj and co. kept their cool to help the side notch a memorable victory.

The team will look up to Yuvraj to fire in the match against Mumbai on Tuesday.

Yuvraj has not scored more than 15 runs from the other five innings this season so far.

But Mohali would still be banking on him in the absence of their regular captain Kumar Sangakkara, who will be missing the game because of the ban imposed on him for maintaining a slow over rate during the IPL match against Kolkata on Sunday.

However, Yuvraj is not the lone under-performer.

Stand-in skipper Mahela Jayawardene too has not lived up to his reputation, while Sangakkara has also failed to make a mark in the tournament.

Mohali have a difficult task at their hands as they will be up against a team which is on a roll.

Sachin Tendulkar has master-minded the Mumbai team superbly and has been leading from the front with some fabulous knocks.

Even the Punjab-born "Turbanator" Harbhajan Singh is not too far behind. In fact, he used Tendulkar's bat to whack Hyderabad bowlers all over the park on Sunday night, to help Mumbai win the match.

Although Mohali do have an extra fire power in the form of pacer Brett Lee but he needs to be at his best to see off Tendulkar early.

Otherwise it is going to be very difficult for Mohali.

Head to Head:

Played: 4

Won by Mohali: 3 (Winning % 75.00)

Won by Mumbai: 1 (Winning % 25.00)

Approaching milestones:

- Sachin Tendulkar (855) requires 45 runs to become the first Mumbai batsman to complete 900 runs in the IPL.

- For the first time in the 2010 edition of the IPL, Sachin (303) has got an opportunity to become the leading run-getter and to overtake Kallis' runs' tally of 310.

- Malinga and Bravo need one wicket each to complete their 25 wickets in the IPL.

- Yuvraj Singh (738) needs 62 runs to become the first batsman for Mohali to complete 800 runs in the IPL