CLT20: Mumbai Indians stay alive with easy win over Lions

Result: Mumbai Indians beat Highveld Lions by 7 wickets

Toss: Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bowl first

Highveld Lions: 140 for 5 from 20 overs (Petersen 35, Pretorius 31*, Harbhajan 1-19)

It was tough going for Lions from the start, with the first two overs going for just seven runs, five of which came from a wide from Mitchell Johnson. Mumbai’s two spinners – Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha picked up three wickets between them as Lions limped to 81 for 5 in the 14th over. Harbhajan was miserly on a pitch that didn’t offer much turn, varying his pace to keep the batsmen guessing, while Ojha responded to being hit for six by Jason Symes by knocking his legstump out of the ground and then screaming in delight.

Alviro Petersen and Dwaine Pretorius stitched the only significant partnership of the match for Lions, adding 59 together, 51 of which came from the last five overs, to give Lions something a target to defend.

Mumbai Indians: 141 for 3 from 18.3 overs (Smith 63*, Pollard 31*, Tanvir 1-15)

A huge roar greeted Sachin Tendulkar when he walked out to open the innings and he was aggressive from the start but his timing was off and he failed to find the middle of the bat with most of his shots. Sohail Tanvir ended his brief struggle with a beautifully disguised slower ball. Tendulkar was through his shot and didn’t bother looking back as his stumps were rearranged

Having laboured to 29 from the first six overs, Dwayne Smith then smashed Tsotsobe for two sixes to get Mumbai’s chase up and running. Dinesh Karthik (13) stay at the crease was brief, but Rohit Sharma hung around long enough to give MI the upper hand. A run of low-scoring overs left Mumbai needed 36 from the last four overs, creating a little pressure, but Smith and Kieron Pollard turned it on, knocking off the runs in 2.3 overs.

Turning Point: The introduction of Harbhajan Singh. Quinton de Kock and Neil Mckenzie appeared to be settling against the seamers when Harbhajan came on in the final over of the PowerPlay. He gave away just two runs while trapping de Kock lbw with the straight one that the batsman failed to pick.

Man of the Match: Dwayne Smith