Mumbai Indians vs Highveld Lions - Match Report

30 runs short of 50K aggregate runs and the master much to his fans’ displeasure was cleaned bowled by Tanvir for 5. And soon the age-old MI strategy began in action Smith took off in style and Karthik after couple of good shots fizzled out. Rohit showed some promise, but in the end it was men from the West, Pollard and Smith that lit the Jaipur Stadium.

Earlier, in a must win game for Lions, they didn’t get the start they wanted, Der Duseen and De Kock fell cheaply. McKenzie and Symes tried to stabilize the innings but MI were upto the mark today. Bhajji and Dhawan were in a miser mode and didn’t leak any runs and both picked the settled batsman. It seemed like Captain Petersen had a lone warrior in Pretorius and the duo put an unbeaten 59 partnership to post a respectable 140. Ojha picked up 2 wickets and Pollard went for 12 in his solitary over. Earlier Johnson and Coulter-Nile had bowed a good line and the latter went for 25 in 4.

After Sachin it was Smith all the way, all the way from long on to square-leg. Any thing in his zone was out of the park. Tahir bowled a beautiful first over and picked up Karthik. It was nice to see a leg spinner in action after Mishra and Tambe earlier in the series. He kept the LIONS in the hunt and when Rohit fell for 20, MI were placed in a spot at 90 in 13th over.

All it needed was, Smith to cruise and Pollard to take off, and it happened exactly as per the plan. Commentators, especially Simon Doul was literally begging them to go wide and not bowl on the pad. But like a nail to a magnet LIONS bowlers kept feeding to his legs and it was willow-leather-crowd. The ball kept travelling deeper into the crowd. Bhajji was all padded-up, only to see the two Caribbean giants take MI to a much-needed victory. 

With this loss, LIONS are virtually out needing a miracle. MI are in the hunt. They need their top order to fire soon, or else the IPL champions would be in danger soon.