Mumbai Gear up For Somerset Challenge, Pollard Fit for Semi-final

Chennai: Mumbai Indians will bank on their familiarity with the conditions to fight through another tough challenge when they take on Somerset in the CLT20 semifinal.

The best news emanating from Mumbai Indians on the eve of their Nokia Champions League T20 semifinal clash against Somerset here Saturday was that all-rounder Kieron Pollad would be fit to play.

Skipper Harbhajan Singh, sounding buoyant said here Friday at a media conference: 'He is fit and he will play tomorrow, unless he does that to him again!' Pollard was injured while training on Thursday.

Looking ahead to the semi-final game, Harbhajan sounded rather philosophical saying he would be at peace with whatever the result may be, but wanted his players to put their best foot forward.

Harbhajan said the Mumbai batting had not quite clicked in the competition and more often than not struggled, but in T20 format, form was not the influential factor.

Mumbai Indians have been allowed to include Surya Kumar Yadav who was in the original squad, but was subsequently dropped due to injury.

He has since recovered fully and the technical committee of the tournament has allowed his re-inclusion while revoking the permission to include a fifth foreign player in the playing eleven.

The skipper thanked the committee for the decision, but said he would have to take a 'tough call' in omitting one of the five foreign players.

Meanwhile, Somerset captain Alfonso Thomas negated the theory that the Mumbai Indians would enjoy an advantage since having played two of their four Group A games at Chepauk.

Somerset, like their opponents, are without some key players who are on international duty, but Thomas opted to see the situation as a challenge rather than difficulty.

The skipper asserted that his player had no qualms facing the likes of Harbhajan and yorker-specialist Lasith Malinga although Somerset batsmen are a tad short on experience.

Somerset brought in Adam Dibble for George Dockrell for their last game, in Bangalore, but on the slower pitch they might want to go back to left-arm spin over right-arm medium pace.

Teams from

Mumbai Indians Harbhajan Singh (capt), AN Ahmed, AC Blizzard, YS Chahal, CRD Fernando, JEC Franklin, DJ Jacobs (wk), S Kanwar, SL Malinga, KA Pollard, AT Rayudu, R Sathish, TL Suman, A Symonds

Somerset AC Thomas (capt), AWR Barrow, JC Buttler, NRD Compton, AJ Dibble, GH Dockrell, GH Dockrell, L Gregory, JC Hildreth, CR Jones, M Kartik, C Kieswetter (wk), SP Kirby, SD Snell (wk), AV Suppiah, PD Trego, RE van der Merwe

Stats and trivia

• Somerset captain Alfonso Thomas has bowled nine maidens in T20 cricket, which is one behind the all-time leader Praveen Kumar. Surprisingly Malinga has bowled only five.
• Pollard has hit 144 sixes in T20 cricket, but he is fourth on the six-hitters' list. David Hussey sits at the top with 167, followed by Ross Taylor with 164. Chris Gayle is just ahead of Pollard with 147 sixes.

Match facts
Saturday October 8, 2011 (day/night)
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)