Match 7: Mumbai Indians v South Australian Redbacks

September 14, Durban: Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and opted to bat first. The Mumbai innings was the story of two halves. In the first half of their innings, their batsmen, barring Tendulkar, looked thoroughly out of place. Gary Putland removed Shikhar Dhawan in just the second over of the match while Ambati Rayudu struggled to get going. Tendulkar, taking the responsibility of giving the innings the required momentum, played one shot too many and was out clean bowled by Aaron O’Brien. Duminy, never comfortable against spin, was Brien’s next victim and by the end of ten overs Mumbai looked to be going nowhere with the score at 59 for 3.
But things changed for MI from the twelfth over onwards. Rayudu finally began middling the ball and O’Brien was dispatched for a four and six in an over that cost 12 runs. And though Rayudu fell in the very next over, Kieron Pollard and Saurabh Tiwary stepped on the gas. O’Brien was at the receiving end yet again, as Tiwary pounded him for 25 runs in the sixteenth over of the innings. By the time Tiwary was out caught by Callum Ferguson off Tait, the Mumbai innings had taken flight at 137 for 5 in 16.1 overs.  Pollard was then joined by fellow T&T player Dwayne Bravo and the two continued piling on the runs. At the end of their allotted 20 overs Mumbai were 180 for 7 thanks to the Bravo (22 off 12) and Pollard (36 off 21) show, with a whopping 121 runs coming in the last ten overs of their innings.
Michael Klinger and Daniel Harris opened the innings for the Redbacks and were stopped from getting off to a flier by some good fast bowling by Zaheer Khan and Lasith Malinga. Yet, slowly and steadily, the Redbacks’ openers seized the momentum and were 69 for no loss at the end of ten overs. But with Harris finally falling with the score at 112 and Klinger too getting out for a well made half-century, MI must have felt that they were back in the game. And when the dangerous Callum Ferguson was caught at the point boundary off Malinga’s bowling, Mumbai had the edge with the Redbacks requiring 41 off 18 balls. But this only proved to be an illusion as Cameron Boragas (14 off 5) and Tom Cooper (19 off 5) held their nerve and smashed Bravo, Zaheer and Harbhajan to take South Australia home with five wickets and three balls to spare.

Brief Scores – South Australian Redbacks 182 for 5 (Daniel Harris 56, Michael Klinger 50, Lasith Malinga 2-22) beat  
Mumbai Indians 180 for 7 (Saurabh Tiwary 44, Ambati Rayudu 38, Kieron Pollard 36, Aaron O’Brien 2-49) by 5 wickets

Man-of-the-match – Daniel Harris for his swashbuckling 56 off 37 balls that included four 4s and three 6s.