South Australian Redbacks took a pounding from the Mumbai Indians batsmen, but still clinched a five-wicket win against the highly rated IPL team in the Champions League Twenty20 on Tuesday.
In a frantic match of sixes and missed chances, Mumbai hammered 180 for seven in their 20 overs despite a slow start on a lively Kingsmead pitch, but Michael Klinger (50) and Daniel Harris (56) took advantage of some sloppy fielding as they put on 112 for South Australia’s first wicket.
Mumbai appeared to have regained the initiative when three wickets fell in 12 balls, but the unheralded Redbacks never stopped going for their shots and sixth-wicket pair Cameron Borgas and Tom Cooper put on 24 off seven balls to get the Australian side home with three balls to spare.
The win put the Redbacks in pole position to reach the semi-finals with two wins from two matches in Group B, while Mumbai face probable elimination after losing both their matches.
Mumbai struggled to 59 for three at the halfway stage of their innings, but some awesome hitting by Saurabh Tiwary, who hit 44 off 25 balls, and Kieron Pollard, 36 off 21 balls, enabled them to score 121 off the last 10 overs. Tiwary hit three of his four sixes off successive deliveries from left-arm spinner Aaron O’Brien and Pollard pounded three sixes, but Mumbai’s fielding was abysmal.
Harris was dropped twice and Klinger once as the Redbacks launched their reply, while the Indians leaked several runs because of poor ground-fielding.
Mumbai captain Sachin Tendulkar admitted his team’s effort in the field was “very disappointing” after what he said was an excellent effort by the batsmen.
“We have to pick up our performance. It’s important that we produce something special in our next two games,” Tendulkar said.
Redbacks captain Klinger, the leading run-scorer in the tournament, said: “We backed ourselves to chase those runs and it was a super effort by everyone. Our running between the wickets and our intensity was really good.”
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