IPL champs cruise to seven-wicket win over Highveld Lions in CLT20 tie
Mumbai Indians cruised to a seven-wicket win over the Highveld Lions in their Champions League T20 encounter at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here yesterday.
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Winning the toss, MI put the Lions into bat and came up with a disciplined performance with the ball to restrict the foreigners to 140-5 off their 20 overs.
Mumbai’s pacers first utilised the seaming conditions well before their spinners came to the party to stop Lions from posting a formidable total. The South African side did not have the best of starts, losing both their openers inside the 50-run mark.
Spinner Pragyan Ojha, with 2-26 off three overs, was the pick of the Mumbai bowlers.
In reply, Mumbai’s batsmen seemed to be in no trouble at all at any stage. Opener Dwayne Smith slammed a 47-ball 63 that included four fours and three sixes to top score in the match. Mumbai’s batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was out for five while Dinesh Karthik managed just 13 and skipper Rohit Sharma was out for 20. But that didn’t bother MI at all as another West Indian big-hitter Kieron Pollard added a valuable 21-ball 31 to see them home with seven wickets in hand and nine balls to spare.
MI skipper Rohit gave full credit to his bowlers. “There was something in the wicket and we used it to our advantage. All credit to the bowlers who restricted them,” he said at the presentation ceremony.
Brief Scores
Highveld Lions 140-5 in 20 overs (A Petersen 35 not out, D Pretorius 31 not out; Pragyan Ojha 2-26) lost to Mumbai Indians 141-3 in 18.3 overs (D Smith 63, K Pollard 31 not out) by seven wickets u00a0