Highveld Lions stunned Mumbai Indians by nine runs in the opening game of the Champions League T20 at the New Wanderers in Johannesburg. Going into the game as favourites, Mumbai Indians did everything possible to shrug off that tag and in the end, went down rather tamely.
For starters, Mumbai won the toss and decided to field first. Captain Sachin Tendulkar did show some strange tactics on the field as he changed the bowling around after every one over. Despite going into the game with five frontline bowlers, Tendulkar would go on to use nine bowlers in the match, something that denoted his confusion. 
Alviro Petersen and Richard Cameron were dismissed early, but Jonathon Vandiar played one of the best innings one would have seen in this format of the game. There was no mindless slogging, but he did show intent of scoring off every ball, and in partnership with Vaughn van Jaarsveld, took the score on to 81 in the 11th over.
Already it looked like the Lions were off to a good total, even as the Mumbai bowlers struggled to find their rhythm. What further hammered home the advantage for the side was the Vandiar-Neil McKenzie partnership which ensured that the side would end as well as they had begun. Vandiar scored 71, whereas the late McKenzie surge (56 off 30) took the team to 186/5 in the 20 overs.
In reply, the Mumbai Indians begun rather well in their quest for getting this huge total. The pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Sachin Tendulkar added 83 for the first wicket, and took less than 10 overs to do so. However, Dhawan then played a funny-looking reverse sweep to Aaron Phangiso and was caught, before Ambati Rayadu was run-out off a direct hit.
JP Duminy was dropped early in the innings, and he looked to be taking full toll in his partnership with Tendulkar, as they added 42 for the third wicket off less than four overs to get Mumbai back into the game. However, Tendulkar’s dismissal off the bowling of Shane Burger did not help the cause and the asking rate kept mounting up.
In the end, Kieron Pollard did smack a few around, but he was also consumed by Burger, as the side fell short of the Lions total by a distance.
Vandiar’s innings that set up the game for the Lions won him the man of the match award.