Despite the absence of star batsmen Shane Watson, Sydney Sixers defeated Mumbai Indians by 12 runs to send them home without a win under their belt.
CLT20 2012: Sydney Sixers send Mumbai Indians packing
Sydney had played the last three matches with Shane Watson the man in form. Watson who was also the player of the tournament in the recently concluded T20 World Cup had to leave the Champions League and join the Australian National Squad.
Watson’s absence seemed to have shows its effect as Sydney struggled to a mere 136 for 7. Michael Lumb made an unimpressive 28 with mis-timed hits. Nic Maddison made a quick fire 27 of 13 before he was run off. Steve Smith scored 41 of as many balls to take them to a total which seemed achievable despite the bounce of the pitch.
Sydney made up for their mistake with the bat with their bowling and fielding. Mumbai could nly manage 30 in the power play overs despite not losing a wicket. Mumbai started to gain momentum but Henriques removed both Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith in a 4 balls gap.
Rohit Sharma started to put up a fight but was run out with a direct hit from Cummins. The run out was not the least of the worries from his side as he ended the match with impressive figures of 2 for 16 in four overs. He picked up the very important wicket of Pollard. Mumbai struggled against the bowling attack of Sydney, the match was won long back as Mumbai scored 20 of the last over with some swinging from Harbajhan.
This was a tournament to forget for the side and they will now want to look deeper into what happened so wrong for a collective failure.
Tags: Champions League, CLT20 2012, Mumbai Indians, Shane Watson
