Mumbai Indians won the third edition of Champions League Twenty20 on the back of a spirited bowling performance led by Captain Harbhajan Singh as the franchise got the taste of success for the first time in 4 years and their first piece of silverware.
With a modest total of 139 to defend, that too against a RCB line-up that had chased down above 200 twice before coming into the final was an improbable task but with the likes of talismanic Malinga, mercurial Pollard and the charismatic Harbhajan Singh in the ranks, the Bangalore challenge was squashed by the Indians at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.
Without their big guns in the squad, the depleted and wounded Mumbai franchise was in the news for all the wrong reasons at the start yet they scrapped past the league stages with few low scoring and heart stopping affairs to reach the finals against the formidable RCB which was powered by Gayle force and brute Kohli aggression.
For Mumbai Indians, Harbhajan led from the front and took the Man of the Match award with an impressive tally of three wickets with a run rate under six. He was ably supported by the young Yazuvendra Chahal who kept the pressure on from one end finishing off with 3-0-9-2 with an economy of 3.00. Even big man Keiron Pollard did his bit with the ball even though he failed with the bat in the entire series. James Franklin once again proved to be the man of the moment for Mumbai as the lanky New Zealander came up with another crucial knock with the bat scoring a very vital 41, the top score for the entire match.
Royal Challengers Bangalore were definitely the favourites going into the second innings to chase down a modest total of 139. The RCB bowling came to the fore in the decider with the likes of Nannes and Vettori coming up with stellar performances to restrict the Mumbai batsmen. Sreenath Arvind who is in the Indians squad which would be squaring off against England again had a bad day at the office going for more than 8 runs per over. Raju Bhatkal was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets. In batting, Dilshan top scored with 27 as the star performers Gayle and Virat Kohli failed to deliver in the decider.
The slow pitch of MA Chidambaram Stadium had something for the bowlers as well as the batsmen and the Mumbai spinners utilized the conditions and extracted maximum out of the pitch to choke the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen during the run chase. Even RCB bowlers enjoyed the slowness of the pitch with Vettori taking full advantage. He had Pollard and Bhajji out in the 16th over to give RCB the advantage. But, Lasith Malinga who was adjudged the Man of the Series came good with the bat as well pushing the Mumbai total past 130.
The batting of Royal challengers had predominantly revolved around the top four and once Bhajji scalped the wickets of Gayle and Kohli who were clearly struggling to come to terms with the pitch, the match tilted in Mumbai’s favour. The young Indian players forgot the basics and went for glory shots when the need of the hour was to take singles, doubles and rotate the strike. Mayank Aggarwal, Arun Karthik, Sourabh Tiwari and even the veteran M Kaif crumbled under pressure and went for big shots. From here on it was matter of chipping away the wickets which was done in the usual fashion by Malinga.
This article was first published in zeenews.com
(http://zeenews.india.com/sports/cricket/clt20-mumbai-indians-win-their-first-piece-of-silverware_730634.html)
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