Just before Mumbai Indians started their IPL campaign, the group of players gathered from far and wide were told about the city’s rich cricketing culture. To drill in the message, they even got mud from Shivaji Park — the alma mater where nameless locals metamorphosed into the game’s legends — and smeared it on the heads of men who were the new-age representatives of Indian cricket’s age-old nerve centre.

The ‘outsiders’ were told about Mumbai’s Hall of Fame and the multiple inscriptions on the Ranji silver. Maybe they weren’t informed about a ‘vital’ co-relation between these two achievements. Mumbai’s domestic domination has been mostly achieved without their international stars. It now seems that after the loss in the first four games, Mumbai Indians were made aware about the missing asterisk in the record books.

The team that was too preoccupied with the injury to Sachin Tendulkar, and later disturbed by the suspension of Harbhajan Singh, have finally learnt to live without their icon. In the last 10 years, Mumbai have won four Ranji titles with minimal help from their superstar. And as Mumbai Indians scored a comprehensive 29-run win over leaders Delhi Daredevils — their second straight high in the tournament after a streak of lows — finally, Mumbai Indians seemed like a Mumbai team.

The youngsters in the Mumbai side speak about Tendulkar’s inputs in the team’s war room and his inspirational pep talks in the dressing room, but when on the field, the team have missed the designated general and his suspended deputy. Today, that void was filled by stand-in skipper Shaun Pollock, who had an outstanding game. Defending a mere 162, Mumbai Indians were an inspired lot as they entered the field with Pollock constantly chattering, putting his arm around their shoulders and leading by example. After his 15-ball 33, a significant contribution in this low-scoring game, Pollock delivered with the ball too. His spell of 4-0-16-2 had a big role to play in the odds-on favourites Daredevils being dismissed for 133.

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