In the opening match of the CLT T-20 tournament in South Africa,the experienced Mumbai Indians were defeated by the young Highveld Lions by 9 runs.Tossing the coin to his choice Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar elected fielding first.The Highveld Lions build a fighting total of 186 runs in just 20 overs.Their young opener Jonathan Vandiar (71 of 53 balls) and the experience Neil Mckenzie(56 of 35 balls) helped the Lions to reach 186.The Mumbai Indians bowling was upto average and their sloppy fielding added extra bonus to the Lions. Even though Malinga was able to pick three wickets of Lions , he was not able to control their run flow.
In the second half Mumbai Indians made a good start as their openers Sachin Tendulkar and Shikar Dhawan, scored at above 7 runs per over.After Dhawan who scored 34 runs and made a partnership of about 73 runs with Sachin Tendulkar who just escaped from the very first ball he faced of Ethan O'Reilly.But sachin Tendulkar 69 runs from 42 balls smoothly brought Mumbai Indians to their target.But a very good spell from Burger dismissed Sachin and also the danger man Keiron Pollard with a pinpoint yorker. Then the game was fully under the control of Highveld Lions.
Yesterdays match once again poped up the fact that experience and past performance will never be a criteria to the T-20 matches.Hope for more interesting matches in the tournament....
