Mumbai Indians win thriller, but out of CLT20
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820 Indians won the 15th game of the Champions League T20 by beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by a wafer-thin margin of two runs. However, they were knocked out of the tournament due to a
low net run-rate.
Chasing a target of 166, the Bangalore side were off to a flying start as they reached 41/0 in five overs. Jacques Kallis was looking to be in his usual fine form, but what seemed to be even better was that
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid looked crisp and in a fine batting form.
However, the dismissal of Kallis changed all that and from 41/0, the Bangalore side lost their four wickets for 59 runs. The run-rate slowed down a lot and an excellent spell by Mumbai's Dwayne Bravo saw
the side get only 23 runs in the four overs that he bowled.
In the end, it was left to Dravid and Kohli to try and get the runs, but the mounting asking-rate meant that the side needed 40 off the last three overs. 12 came off the 18th over from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abu-Nechim-c909, before
Lasith Malinga went for three boundaries off three balls to get the equation down to Bangalore needing 13 off the last over.
The last over was bowled by Zaheer Khan, who conceded only two off the first two deliveries, before Kohli smacked him to the square-leg fence. A dot-ball and a four later, the Bangalore side needed three
runs to win the game off the last ball, but a top-edge by Kohli gave the wicket-keeper Ambati Rayadu a difficult catch, which he held on to gleefully.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians had gone into the game knowing well that they not only had to win the game, but win it with plenty to spare. They had two points from three games, whereas Bangalore had two from two.
Lions had beaten Guyana and were on four from three matches.
This meant that even if Mumbai won and got their tally to four points, a Lions win over Bangalore would give them six points and mean that the Lions joined the South Australian side in the semi-finals. If,
on the other hand, if Bangalore defeated Lions, then there would be a three-way tie between Mumbai, Lions and Bangalore but with only one open spot to get to the semi-finals. With Mumbai’s net run-rate way worse than both Bangalore and Lions, a narrow two-run
win did not help them at all.
On the other hand, Bangalore and Lions are in a virtual quarter-final-like situation. The two teams play each other in the last league game, and the winner will go through to the semi-finals. That game takes
place Tuesday.
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