The Mumbai Indians are beaming from ear to ear — they have Pollock, Jonty Rhodes and Praveen Amre, three men in their strategy camp, and opener Sanath Jayasuriya, who have inside information on the conditions in this province. However, there’s one man in Tuesday’s double-header who, though he may not know as much about the Kingsmead Stadium, carries fond memories of it. It was here that Yuvraj Singh slammed six sixes in an over to add a whole new dimension to his reputation.

Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar have provided a sedate start to the tournament for the batting camp, and it’s now time for big-hitters such as Yuvraj, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Matthew Hayden, Jesse Ryder and Kevin Pietersen to build the tempo in the second edition of the IPL.

‘Things will change’

The par score of the tournament has been set at a lowly 135-odd so far, not just because of the conditions but also because the teams employed a safety-first approach in the first round of matches. But, contrary to the initial trend, players now feel that big scores will follow. The individual brilliance of some of the batsmen, their bat-speed and timing, works independent of the factors, they say.

“The tournament will definitely see some high scores soon. Every tournament has high and low scores, I guess it’s time we see the scores coming,” says Pollock. “The teams are just trying to get their feet together at the moment. It’s difficult, especially when you are travelling all the while and there are no home games, but I’m certain that the big players won’t disappoint.”

There have been some flashes of big hitting — Abhishek Nayar slamming 35 from 14 balls, Karan Goel’s 38 against Delhi, and Sehwag’s shots in that one over from Yusuf Abdulla. But overall, it has been a tempered batting approach so far. “It’s really hurting that with people like me, Gayle, and Ganguly around, we couldn’t quite get to the start we wanted. But I’m sure there will be several occasions for us to rectify that,” says Kolkata Knight Riders skipper McCullum.

Unstoppable

Yuvraj, meanwhile, believes it is impossible to stop Sehwag when he’s hitting. “One just has to stand and wait for him to get out,” he adds, while Kings XI Punjab coach Tom Moody feels that Sehwag and Gambhir have already proved that they are the world’s most destructive opening pair at the moment.

Durban is often called “mini India” because of its vast population of people of Indian origin. That compelled the IPL organisers to slot as many matches as they could here over the next fortnight, and prior to this tournament, the eight teams were vying for the city as their home base because of the crowd the games are expected to attract.

Much of the popularity stakes of the second edition IPL are hinged on the turnout in the stadiums, which many believe will only be possible if there are high scores and huge hits.