CLT20: Smith makes it all-IPL final as Mumbai Indians beat T&R

Result: Mumbai Indians beat Trinidad & Tobago by six wickets Toss: Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bowl first Trinidad & Tobago: 153 for 4 (Lewis 62, Ottley 41*, Pollard 1-16) T&T lost Simmons for a duck in the second over when he was tempted by Harbhajan and holed out to deep midwicket but Evin Lewis and Darren Bravo produced another significant partnership. Lewis was one again the driving force, slashing Johnson over third man for six and then thumping Harbhajan for two sixes in the same over. The pair took their side to 61 for 1 in 8 overs before Bravo fell to a superb piece of stumping from Dinesh Karthik. [caption id=“attachment_1155311” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sachin Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith added 90 for the first wicket. BCCI[/caption] The left-handers dismissal slowed the batting side’s momentum. Lewis also began to struggle with his timing, though he brought up his 50 with a cut that split third man and backward point. The seamers – particularly Kieron Pollard and Nathan Coulter-Nile – dragged the scoring rate down. Lewis eventually offered a soft return catch to Pollard while Denesh Ramdin did not last long. Nicolas Pooran and Yannick Ottley then pushed the score past 150 with some inventive batting coupled with strategic big hitting – they added 37 from 3.5 overs – but the total was always 10 or 15 runs short. Mumbai Indians: 157 for 5 (Smith 59, Tendulkar 35, Narine 3-17) Dwayne Smith and Sachin Tendulkar gave Mumbai Indians their best start of the tournament, adding 90 at better than 8 runs an over. Smith was his usual belligerent self, driving Rampaul for two fours in his first over, but this time Tendulkar was able to keep him company. He got moving with a punched drive on the up off Rampaul and then smashed the left-arm spin of Ottley for consecutive sixes – the first a slog sweep, the second a delicious inside-out cover drive. One over later, a single brought up 50,000 runs in senior competitive cricket (first-class, List A and T20) for Tendulkar. He is the first Indian and 16th player to achieve the feat. Only two others have played for countries other than England (Vivian Richards and Gordon Grennidge). T&T were hampered by the loss of Emrit, who dislodged his shoulder while diving in the second over, and did not bowl at all. Mumbai were cruising when Tendulkar slashed at Simmons and Ramdin gobbled up the top edge. That set the stage for Sunil Narine who had Rayudu caught behind first ball and then spun the off-break past Smith’s slog-sweep and into offstump. That set off a bit of a flutter in the Mumbai Indians camp, but Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik calmed the nerves with a crucial 42-run partnership. Narine would have one more ace to play. He bowled Rohit with a beauty that drew the batsman forward before spinning past the outside edge to hit off stump, leaving Rohit looking bemused. But Karthik finished matters off with a flurry of boundaries to set up an all-IPL final against Rajasthan Royals that will also serve as the farewell game for Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Turning Point: The dismissal of Darren Bravo slowed T&T’s innings and they were never able to recover the momentum, finishing with a score that they were always going to struggle to defend. Man of the Match: Dwayne Smith