Published: Sep 13, 2014, 11:49 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 14, 2014, 12:24 AM (IST)
By Abhijit Banare
Sep 13, 2014
A collective effort from the Mumbai Indians (MI) bowlers wasn’t enough to stop Lahore Lions from clinching the second match of the qualifying stage of the Champions League T20 (CLT20) 2014 by six wickets at Raipur on Saturday. It was a tense chase for Lahore but Umar Akmal stayed till the end to seal the win for Lahore with an unbeaten 38 in just 18 balls.
On a usual subcontinent pitch, a target of 136 is well below par. Lahore Lions had all the time to plan this chase and were in no hurry. Skipper Kieron Pollard held back his trump card Lasith Malinga and opened the bowling with Praveen Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah. Both these pacers maintained a tidy line.
While Praveen used his swing, Bumrah was impressive getting bounce off the pitch. The Lahore top-order is one of the most formidable ones in the tournament, with Pakistan’s international players Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez and Akmal making the top four. Openers Shehzad and Jamshed are instinctively aggressive players. Bumrah and Praveen did well to keep them quiet.
With not much on board in four overs it was a good time for Malinga to come on. However, Shehzad was adept against facing the pacer and he had shown the skills to score against him. With Shehzad in full flow, Jamshed was content playing the second fiddle and he was not timing the ball well too. Shehzad picked 10 runs off Malinga’s first over and followed up with two fours and a six in the next over by Bumrah.
But Shehzad has been known to gift his wicket away rather than the bowler foxing him. He tried to hammer Pragyan Ojha for a big six over long-on and ended up giving a catch to skipper Pollard. Jamshed then took the lead with a few crisp shots against Harbhajan Singh but once again walked back thanks to a lazy dismissal. He decided to set off for a run without noticing the ball was just right in front of the keeper and was stumped.
Despite two quick wickets Lahore were comfortably placed. The spinners kept Mumbai in the game bowling to a tight line. Ojha was miserly in his four overs and applied the brakes on the batsmen. He struck in his final over removing a frustrated Saad Nasim. He finished his spell with two for 18. His spell was crucial in pushing the Lions’ required rate towards 10.
With the pressure building up, Lahore had two of their best batsmen, Mohammad Hafeez and Akmal. They needed 49 in the last five overs when Pollard brought himself on. Akmla took him on a hit enough runs to release the pressure. But a part of it was undone when Hafeez was foxed by a slower delivery and was caught. At the end of 16 overs, Mumbai still had the services of Harbhajan, Malinga and Bumrah.
It was the 18th over which tilted the balance in Lahore’s favour where Malinga went for 15 in the over. Akmal remained till the end to see Lahore home.
Mumbai Indians will have to produce a much better batting ffort if they have to win matches. Their top-order troubles continued from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014. Imran Ali and Aizaz Cheema started off with an erratic line, they soon got back in to rhythm. Cheema in particular bowled an excellent spell which helped Lahore wrestle control of the match. He managed to keep Lendl Simmons — the star of MI’s IPL 2014 campaign — quiet which eventually led to Simmons charging down and gifting his wicket away. Within no time, Mumbai were two down as a nervous Jalaj Saxena departed for a golden duck playing a tentative shot. They lost as many as three wickets inside the powerplay making it difficult for them to stage a comeback.
In the absence of their main batsman Rohit Sharma, Mumbai lacked enough depth. They will have to quickly regroup and address this issue ahead of their match against Southern Express tomorrow night. They won’t have any additional resources but will look to their key batsmen to bat more responsibly. They’ll also be considering bringing Corey Anderson in.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 135 for 7 in 20 overs (Michael Hussey 28, Aditya Tare 27; Wahab Riaz 2 for 31, Aizaz Cheema 2 for 22) lost to Lahore Lions 139 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Ahmed Shehzad 34, Nasir Jamshed 26, Umar Akmal 38*; Pragyan Ojha 2 for 18) by six wickets.
Man of the match: Umar Akmal
Complete coverage of Champions League T20 2014 here
(Abhijit Banare is a reporter at CricketCountry. He is an avid quizzer and loves to analyse and dig out interesting facts which allows him to learn something new every day. Apart from cricket he also likes to keep a sharp eye on Indian politics, and can be followed on Twitter and blog)
