There seemed to be a ‘Choke, Splutter, Gasp’ situation for the Mumbai Indians (MI) as they stuttered through the first three matches of the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). It did look like some grease missing from the normally well oiled machine.

The MI machine finally started to purr on their home ground with a well coordinated display of cricket beating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 46 runs – a facile victory if one considers the drama that happened in the first over of the match. It took two brilliant deliveries by Umesh Yadav to allow RCB to put a foot into the MI citadel.

The sea of blue was shocked to see the two original openers, West Indian Evin Lewis and skipper Rohit Sharma together with the scoreboard reading nought for two wickets. It’s not always that a team in a situation such as MI found themselves, at the start of their innings, reaches a massive 213 runs.

Sharma and Lewis followed the mantra set by gurus of the game; ‘when in trouble, stick to the basics.’ Lewis’ belligerence gave an out of form Sharma the opportunity to play himself back in the groove by taking his time, playing cricketing shots and score a fabulous 94 off a mere 52 balls. The missing element of sweetness in his stokes came back when he played deliveries on merit much to the delight of the spectators for there aren’t too many batsmen that time the ball better than the MI skipper.

MI came back to the party on the back of their social media campaign – Game On. Emotions On. Needless to say the Blue army flashed their ‘smileys’ and ‘thumbs up’ soon after they bagged their first two points, thanks to their bowlers finally backing their batsmen to thrash the opponents.

The Wankhede game, in a way, was the tale of two immensely talented batsmen – Sharma and Virat Kohli - both being fulcrums around whom the batting line up of their teams revolve. The Indian skipper maintained the form he had achieved in the previous match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) by scoring a magnificent, unbeaten 92 of 62 balls albeit in a losing cause. Sharma, on the other hand, discarded the agricultural shots he had tried to employ in the previous three matches to come back to form – a positive sign for the reigning champions.

Even as this edition is yet to get into the ‘middle overs,’ in a manner of speaking, most teams seem to be putting their hopes on a few players. For MI, Sharma’s form is what matters while RCB, at this point of time, are totally dependent on Kohli and AB DeVillers. One could see RCB shoulders droop when the supremely talented Protean walked back to the pavilion after being trapped into giving a sitter at mid-wicket.

Most teams, as Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir rightly pointed out in his column, are still trying to get their team balance and the right combination. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), and to an extent the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), seem to be making the right moves to maintain themselves on the top of the heap.

Kane Williamson’s marshalling of his resources, so far, has been excellent and the SRH bowlers, led by their warhead Bhuvaneshwar Kumar have been bang on target. Their balance, with spinners Rashid Khan and Bangladeshi Shakib Al Hasan supporting the pacers seems to be working for them.  By winning the first three matches, SRH seem to have come closer to finding their combination but their batting is too top- reliant on the skipper and Shikhar Dhawan.

Chris Gayle’s return for the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) is a boon for the team whose batting runs real deep.  It was surprising that Gayle, one of the most explosive and successful batsmen in the shortest format of the game, was left out of KXIP’s initial matches. It may have been his hunger for runs, after having to sit in the dugout that prompted the West Indian to announce his comeback with a belligerent 63 off 33 balls to take game just out of the reach of Chennai Super Kings in a pulsating match played at Mohali. With veteran Yuvraj Singh and Karun Nair batting lower down the order, KXIP have the firepower to decimate any attack in the competition.

Post their win against RCB, MI skipper Sh­a­rma righty said that if their batting worked, their bowling did not and vice versa – an issue with most teams in the competition thus far. The next week is going to be crucial as the IPL gets into the ‘middle overs’ and teams will be much closer in figuring out the right combinations.  Will the teams that have been winning continue with their form? Will a few teams peak early in the tournament? Or will there be a twist in the tale!

(The writer is a former Cricket Club of India captain and Bombay University cricketer)