The Little Master can work wonders with his bat, but when it comes to captaincy, it just doesn't click for Sachin Tendulkar. It has happened in his two stints as India skipper and even after his fourth year as Mumbai Indians captain, it's the same old story. The world knows that Tendulkar has one of the shrewdest cricketing minds, but when it comes to taking decisions as captain, all the moves seem to backfire.
It happened in last year's IPL final when he held back Kieron Pollard till the 17th over and the West Indian just didn't have enough overs to take them to the title. This time too, some of the decisions Tendulkar took at the MA Chidambaram stadium against Royal Challengers simply defied logic. It started with winning the toss and choosing to field first on a pitch where teams batting first have won six of the seven games this season.
Tendulkar had an explanation to give at the prize distribution ceremony but it hardly had takers. "When we were playing CSK in the first season, they scored more than 200 and we lost by three runs," Tendulkar said. Three years have passed since then and Tendulkar has played enough games here to know that the pitch has only got slower.
Daniel Vettori, the Royal Challengers skipper, made it clear that Tendulkar, by opting to field, had made things a little easier for him. "If we had won the toss, we would have batted first... But then, sometimes, it works, sometimes it doesn't," Vettori said.
Mumbai Indians' James Franklin looked like a lamb to the slaughter as he was made available by the management to face a barrage of questions to the media. "The toss decision was the team management's, I didn't know much about it," he said as scribes across the media-room couldn't hide their smiles when the Kiwi came up with that explanation.
If the decision to field first was a mistake to begin with, the second blunder was to ask Abu Nechim Ahmed bowl the first over. With Lasith Malinga in the line-up, one could expect that the Sri Lankan would be unleashed to keep Chris Gayle in check. The Assam bowler just didn't know where to bowl as Gayle plundered 27 runs off the first over to set the tone for the game.
Vettori, quite predictably, avoided the query whether he was surprised saying "someone had to bowl", but the fact remains that Mumbai Indians struggled to fight back after that one over. Tendulkar said that he expected the middle-order to be a little more consistent, but then he didn't specify why Harbhajan Singh got promoted to No. 3 while a chance was never taken with somebody like a Pollard.
Harbhajan may have a couple of Test centuries under his belt, but he is not known to anchor an innings coming in at No. 3. "He hit the winning runs for us against Kolkata Knight Riders, that's why we took a chance with him," said Franklin, offering a very weak explanation.
The Little Master will probably try his luck once again next year. And who knows, something better may just be in store.
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