Reasons for Mumbai's 20-20 loss

You have to think and act very fast in a 20-20 game. Everybody thought Mumbai had an upper hand in the finals. However, we all know how 20-20 games swing on either side in a matter of seconds. Between Mumbai and Chennai I thought Mumbai should have won easily. Considering Mumbai's consistent performance throughout the tournament I thought Chennai would struggle. But after watching the finals I was left speechless. How low the fielding standards of international cricket (especially IPL) have fallen !! I can not expect even midwest cricket players to make such mistakes let alone international cricketers.
On seeing the highlights following things hurt mumbai very badly:

1) Raina's first drop catch-
What was Fernando thinking when he let Nayar approach the ball instead of pouncing on to the catch. Clearly it was his catch since he was approaching the ball in forward direction. Reminds me of a game when Fernando tried to act smart by not bowling after running and then staring at the batsman. This guy clearly is not made for big stage games.

2) Second drop !!
If first catch was blunder then there are no words to describe ZAheer's drop. Even kids who go to coaching classes should not make that mistake. Can you believe Jonty is training these guys for fielding. I can conclude only two things. First, Jonty is not doing a good job or his efforts are hampered by these big, bulky and lazy players who dont want to run and take catches (in practice). Look at ZAheer's shape and look at Johnty's shape. Here is a guy who is 10 years older to Zaheer but is much fitter and better fielder than him.

3) Shikhar Dhawan ????
IS this guy over rated ! Yes atleast based on his final performance. If you can not perform when needed the most, you simply are not good enough for the stage. What was he thinking when he let Ashwin ball maiden at the start. Are these guys really that weak to clear a 20 yard circle. My God !! let the softball kid take his place. They will definitely clear the inner cricle if not the boundary. Clearly a big bad performance by Dhawan.

4) Pollard's batting order ??
Ok you are chasing 169. well if your batsman (less capable offcourse) plays first over maiden, it is time to send hitter up the order. Whats the logic of sending pollard at no 8 when after 2 wickets the required run rate climbed to almost 12 runs an over.Huhhh. Who decided that batting order? Duminy cant clear the ground, Tiwari is too bulky (less agile), Rayudu is not that powerful either. In this case the only person who can respond to your SOS is Pollard.

Well now that the season is done, lets conclude by saying that it was just another game. But really, mumbai fell short by small margin , perhaps because of bad bad fielding. drop Catches cost Matches.

Game 1 - 20-20 League in Ohio Invitation Cup

Cleveland won the toss and decided to field. Akron were 13/3 at one stage. A good batting display from Amit (as always) and Hari Parthasarathi pulled us through. Siddharth's timely knock gave some boost. Akron managed 96 runs in 18.4 (approx)-all out.Our surprise bowler this time was Amit who opened with Vijay at the start. His first over was maiden. Excellent spell by Amit, Aditya and Hari restricted cleveland to 26 runs in 10 overs. Fast bowlers tightened their grip further to leave Cleveland on 58 at the end of 17 overs. Thus needing 39 runs in 3 overs, Akron felt they were safe. However some crisp strokeplay from Manu (Cleveland) and some rubbish bowling by other bowlers from Akron helped Cleveland score 26 runs in 18th and 19th over. Needing 13 runs in 6 balls, Manu hit 4,6 and 2 (new batsman scored 1 of the first ball) to give Cleveland a surprise win.