Mumbai, May 4: 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.

Pollock got a big helping hand from Ashish Nehra, a true-blue Delhi player, but a man in Mumbai Indians blues these days. He struck the vital blow by dismissing the in-form Gautam Gambhir in the first over and later scalped two wickets in his last — 18th over of the game — to help Mumbai Indians win a close game. Another high point of Pollock’s day was the inspired bowling change. Dominic Thornely, who bowled for the first time in the tournament, got the most vital wicket of the game. The on-song Virender Sehwag was dimissed by Thornely with Pollock holding the catch. “I think Sehwag’s wicket was the turning point of the match; he is the man in form. And when we got Gambhir and the other top-order batsmen, we knew we had a chance,” he said. And the chance was grabbed by some brilliant catching by the hosts.

But in this euphoria of the Mumbai Indians’s revival, it should not be forgotten that the batting still has a ‘missing Tendulkar’ tag to it. The openers once again failed and the middle order too looked fragile. Though Robin Uthappa and Dwayne Bravo had dropped the anchor against Kolkata Knight Riders in the last game, but their failure here means they can’t be named a couple of ‘Mr Reliables’.

At home, they survived on the power of adrenalin and the jam-packed support — something that can’t be expected all the time. But maybe in the next game, Tendulkar will be back and the train that has finally come on track will start to chug along.