Local Lions outperform the Mumbai in CLT20 opener
The Highveld Lions made a stunning start to their Champions League campaign by beating the Mumbai Indians by nine runs. The Lions, led by Alviro Petersen defied all odds, after they had lost the toss and were put into bat by Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians.
Batting first, the Highveld Lions ended up with 186 after an innings filled with wayward bowling by Mumbai Indians and sublime batting from Jonathan Vandiar (71) and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Neil-McKenzie-c2094 (56).
Going into the game without Saurabh Tiwary due to an injury, Mumbai chose to pick five specialist bowlers, but even they didn’t seem to be enough as Tendulkar chose as many as nine bowlers to share the 20 overs. McLaren, who opened the bowling and conceded only four runs, mysteriously bowled only one over.
Mumbai seemed to have made the right start when Petersen got into a ridiculous mix-up with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Vaughn-van-Jaarsveld-c2749 and Vandiar. It was the experience of Lasith Malinga that then came handy as he deceived van Jaarsveld, with a slower delivery.
That brought McKenzie to the crease. McKenzie shifted gears in the 13th over when as he unleashed a wide array of shots taking the Lions close to 150. Vandiar complemented his senior batsman stroke for stroke as he notched up his half century of 39 balls with a six. Vandiar was finally dismissed for 71. McKenzie kept the runs coming, as he scored 17 in the last over from Khan to take the Lions to 186.
Mumbai started their innings in fine style with Dhawan and Tendulkar taking to the Highveld bowlers. Tendulkar received a slice of good fortune when a close call for LBW was turned down.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shikhar-Dhawan-c90019 tried to reverse sweep Phangiso, but only managed to find Cameron at short third man. Ambati Rayadu then came to join his Skipper. His short stint at the crease came to an end when an accurate throw from Petersen found him outside his crease and he was run-out for 3. That brought Duminy to the crease to partner his captain.
Tendulkar, who was out to make up for his lacklustre captaincy, was on his way to yet another match-winning innings until http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shane-Burger-c89654 got through his defences when he was on 69. Out came Kieron Pollard. After smashing Burger for 16 runs off the first five balls, the medium pacer got one back by cleaning up the West Indian.
Still requiring 31 from 18, Satish came out to be Mumbai’s would-be hero. But he couldn’t handle the pressure along with Duminy and quick wickets along with an inspired last over from Frylinck ensured the IPL runners-up fell short by nine runs.
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