South Australia chases down 181 to beat Mumbai

Tom Cooper hit 19 off five balls to see South Australia Redbacks to a five-wicket win over IPL giants Mumbai Indians in the Champions League Twenty20 at Durban.

By (Reuters)

Published: Wed 15 Sep 2010, 12:34 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Nov 2023, 12:06 PM

The defeat, Mumbai’s second in two games in Group B, puts Sachin Tendulkar’s team on the brink of elimination.

Cooper smashed two sixes and a four at the death as South Australia overhauled Mumbai’s 180-7 with three balls to spare on Tuesday. The Redbacks finished on 182-5.

Openers Michael Klinger and Daniel Harris both made half-centuries in a 112-run opening partnership, but the Redbacks needed big hitting from Cooper and Cameron Borgas (14 off 5) to see them to victory.

“It was about having wickets in the shed and we had some luck,” said Harris, who topscored for South Australia with 56. “Sometimes it goes your way ... the guys at the end were so cool under pressure.”

Mumbai, the 2010 IPL runner-up, will now need help from other results in the group if it is to make the last four. Mumbai plays Guyana next, back in Durban, on Thursday.

“We have to pick up our performance,” Tendulkar said. “It’s important that we produce something special. Whatever is not in our control, we don’t think about, and what we can control, we will focus on that.”

Left-hander Saurabh Tiwary, playing his first game at the Champions League after returning from injury, had led Mumbai’s batting with 44 off 36 balls. He hit three successive sixes in the 16th over off Aaron O’Brien.

Spinner O’Brien ended with 2-49, South Australia’s most expensive bowler, but he claimed the prize wicket of Tendulkar, bowled for 20.

Ambati Rayudu made 38 from 32 balls, but the Mumbai innings was sent into overdrive by West Indian all rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, who plays for South Australia in Australia’s domestic T20 competition.

Pollard thumped 36 from 21 balls against his sometime teammates, with three sixes and two fours, as Mumbai battered 43 off the last four overs. His huge hook for six off fast bowler Shaun Tait in the 19th flew 120 meters in the air, disappearing over the stands and into the Durban night.

Also in his first match this tournament, Bravo added four fours in his 22 from 12, but Mumbai’s bowling and fielding failed to match its explosive batting.

The IPL team dropped catches and missed run-out chances against both openers as Klinger and Harris stayed together until the 14th over.

And despite taking just 18 runs off the first four, then allowing the required run rate to creep above 11, they put their team within sight of victory with wickets in hand.

Harris fell first for 56 from 37, Klinger followed exactly one over later, for 50, and Graham Manou and Callum Ferguson went cheaply.

But Daniel Christian (16) and then Borgas and Cooper lifted South Australia from 140-4 to victory.

Needing 48 from the last four overs, South Australia took 16 off the 17th.

Cooper then connected for a six off the second last ball of the 19th to swing the game South Australia’s way.

Still needing 11 of Harbhajan Singh in the final over, Cooper took two off the first ball and then sent a slog sweep over the mid-wicket ropes, which left his team needing three from four balls.

South Australia sealed its second win of the competition with three deliveries remaining when Cooper punched the next ball, a full toss, through the field for four and left the Redbacks on 182-5.

“It was a super effort,” South Australia skipper Klinger said. “We backed ourselves to chase those runs and it was a super effort by everyone.”

Mumbai’s 180-7 was the second highest total of the tournament so far — and still wasn’t enough.

“To get to 180 was an excellent job by the batters, and then to allow them to get to that total after having bowled so well initially was very disappointing,” Tendulkar said. “It was the fielding which cost us the game.”