| A great partnership between the openers Michael Klinger and Daniel Harris and then mini blitzkriegs in the end from Tom Cooper and Cameron Borgas helped the South Australia Redbacks to chase down a huge target and hand the Mumbai Indians a second consecutive defeat in the Airtel Champions League T20. They were aided by some poor fielding by the Mumbai Indians who also dropped a few very easy catches. innings | Kieron Pollard> |
Klinger, the captain was cautious again at the start and it was Harris who gave the innings some impetus in the sixth over. It was a gamble by Sachin Tendulkar to bring Ali Murtaza before the end of the power play and it back fired big time. 15 runs came off that over in which Harris hit two massive sixes to kick start the Redbacks’ reply. Klinger joined the fray a few overs later, hammering Dwayne Bravo for two sixes, one over mid wicket and the other over extra cover. 
The fielding was very poor, allowing the batsmen to go for extra runs. At least three easy catches were dropped early on, Tendulkar, Saurabh Tiwary and JP Duminy being the culprits. The breakthrough finally came in the 14th over, as Harris hit one straight to extracover off Murtaza. Lasith Malinga got Klinger in the very next over and the pressure was back on the Redbacks. Graham Manou then hit a four and six, but was out the very next ball.
The Redbacks needed 41 runs from the last three overs and looked too high a task. However, 16 runs off the 18th over from Bravo brought the equation down to 25 runs from the last 12 balls. The nineteenth over went for 14 runs, with 12 runs off the last four balls of the over. Harbhajan Singh bowled the last over but was a major disappointmen t conceding the required runs in the first three balls.
Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar won the the toss and had no hesitations in batting first. Tiwary came in for Rajagopal Satish and Dwayne Bravo was in for Ryan McLaren. After the loss of Shikhar Dhawan and Tendulkar early, Tiwary joined hands with Ambati Rayudu to get the Indians back on track. They steadied the ship which allowed Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo to go after the bowling in the final overs.
Mumbai Indians have to win their next game against Guyana to stay in the competition.