From the iSport Cricket Pavilion: A deadly bowling spell of 4/20 by Lasith Malinga coupled with a superb penultimate over by James Franklin (conceding just seven runs with 22 required from two overs and picking up two wickets) helped Mumbai Indians defend a target of 160 and beat Somerset by 10 runs to setup summit clash with Royal Challengers at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.
Both teams went into the match with following line-ups:
Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh (capt), AN Ahmed, AC Blizzard, YS Chahal, JEC Franklin, S Kanwar, SL Malinga, KA Pollard, AT Rayudu (wk), R Sathish, SA Yadav
Somerset: AC Thomas (capt), JC Buttler, NRD Compton, AJ Dibble, JC Hildreth, M Kartik, C Kieswetter (wk), SP Kirby, AV Suppiah, PD Trego, RE van der Merwe.
Mumbai Indians captain, Harbhajan Singh, won the toss, elected to bat and got off to an aggressive start as Blizzard punished Kirby for three boundaries in the second over, scoring 13 runs from it.
The opening pair added 19 runs from three overs before Kanwar pulled one straight to long leg off Kirby. Blizzard continued his blitz despite Kanwar's wicket as he clobbered Kirby for a six over midwicket off a free hit delivery and followed it up with back-to-back six and four over mid off and mid on.
Rayudu struggled in the middle, but managed to sneak through couple of boundaries before trying to force a bouncing length ball through extra cover and getting a thick edge to the keeper in the eighth over.
Blizzard then brought up his half-century with a six off Murali Kartik. Blizzard and Franklin added 24 from 21 deliveries for the third wicket before van der Merwe trapped the latter right in front in his first over for 6.
Somerset were right back into the match when Kartik cleaned up the Blizzard in the next over to reduce Mumbai to 92/4 in the 13th over. Pollard showed some glimpses of his power hitting with two humougous sixes off van der Merwe and Trego, but departed in the 17th over, cleaned up by Thomas for24.
With Mumbai struggling at 117 for 5 in the 17th over, Sathish and Suryakumar Yadav took over and made sure that Mumbai posted a competitive total on the board as they added 10 runs off the 18th over and then mauled Thomas for 20 runs in the 19th over. The pair added 43 unbeaten runs off just 22 balls to help Mumbai post 160 on the board. Sathish remained unbeaten on 25 off 12 balls, while Yadav remained not out on 23 off 19 balls.
In reply, Somerset got off to a bad start as Malinga cleaned up in-form Trego with his trademark Yorker off just the second ball of the innings. An over later, Malinga cleaned up van der Merwe with a slow dipping Yorker to reduce Somerset to 17 for 2 in the third over.
Kieswetter and Hildreth then resurrected the innings as the pair added 83 for the third wicket from 10 overs. Harbhajan Singh finally broke the partnership in the 14th over when he cleaned up Hildreth for 39. Kieswetter, who survived a dropped catch and a stumping, brought up his half-century from 40 deliveries.
With 45 required from 24 deliveries, The pair of Kieswetter and Buttler took Abu Nechim to the cleaners, mauling him for 16 runs off the 17th over, including a six and two boundaries, bringing down the equation to 29 from 18 balls.
Malinga conceded just seven runs from first of his remaining two to make it 22 required from 12 balls. The biggest gamble of the match was taken by Harbhajan Singh when he handed over the ball to Franklin to bowl the penultimate over and the gamble worked as Franklin bowled a great over conceding just seven runs along with wickets of Buttler (clean-bowled) and Kieswetter (62, Caught at long on).
With 15 required off the last over, Malinga wrapped up the match as he cleaned up Compton and Karthik off successive deliveries and conceded just four runs from the over to help Mumbai win by 10 runs and setup summit clash with Royal Challengers at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai tomorrow.
Lasith Malinga was named the man of the match for his match-winning spell of 4/20.
Scores: Mumbai Indians: 160/5; Somerset: 150/7
Man of the Match: Lasith Malinga
Highlights of 1st Semi Final CLT20 2011: RCB vs NSW
F1 2011: Japanese GP Qualifying Results
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments
Show/hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
