Rohit Sharma and Dwayne Smith propelled Mumbai Indians to the semifinals of the Champions League Twenty20 2013 after thumping Perth Scorchers by six wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi on 2nd September Wednesday.
Mumbai opted to field first. They needed to reach the 150-run target set by Perth in 14.2 overs to sneak past Otago Volts on net run-rate and catch up Rajasthan Royals in the semis from Group A. At the end, they needed just 13.2 overs to get the reach the target.
Particularly, Mumbai brought in the bowling changes rapidly. However, it took them tenth over of the innings to haul the first breakthrough, when Pragyan Ojha bowled Ashton Agar and Simon Katich off the 2nd and 5th deliveries. By that time, Perth had crossed the 50-run mark.
Notably, the Mumbai bowlers had kept things tight before the dismissals and Perth reached just 29 at the end of the Power Play overs. The rate resumed the speed a bit after that, which was aided by Dinesh Karthik, who missed an easy opportunity to stump Agar off Glenn Maxwell. The ball ultimately rolled away for 4 byes.
The situation improved for Perth just after the wickets fell and the period between overs 10 and 15 were fruitful. Debutant Hilton Cartwright and Sam Whiteman went after the bowlers, as Karthik conceded four more byes again off Maxwell and in general Mumbai fielding seemed rather sloppy. In addition, Harbhajan Singh allowed a half chance to go at short third man.
Anyway, Perth still required a good over to compensate the slow start and that finally emerged in the 15th, which was bowled by Harbhajan, when Whiteman struck the first 6 of the innings, while Cartwright added 2 boundaries. Finally, 18 runs came off the over. However, Nathan Coulter-Nile took 2 wickets in the next over by first yorking Cartwright for 28 off the third delivery and subsequently catching Ashton Turner in front first ball.
The scoreboard showed 114. It reached 149 due to the efforts of Whiteman, who exhibited remarkable composure against his big-name rivals in slamming 32-ball 51. No doubt, Coulter-Nile was the pick of the Mumbai bowlers, who took Marcus North's wicket to return 3 for 19 from his 4 overs.
Anyway, the pursuit wasn't going to be easy, especially with one of the openers Sachin Tendulkar, who fell short on scoring form.
Remarkably, Tendulkar fell for a 2nd-ball duck, an uppish flick off Jason Behrendorff going to Whiteman at deep square-leg, due to which Justin Langer's pre-match hopes of spotting an Eric Hollies in his group came true, down to the number of balls encountered by the master-blaster.
The chase continued, while Dwayne Smith having taken out the big shots in the first over by Michael Beer continued on the same vein. He scored three sixes and five fours even as Maxwell came and dismissed, giving Behrendorff his 2nd wicket. Next, Rohit joined in the carnage, who hit a flicked 6 off Joel Paris to get off the mark.
Mumbai was struggling to return. Smith smashed Brad Hogg's first delivery over midwicket for a 6 and was well placed to do the same in the next one. He didn't connect adequately, but Behrendorff pulled off a stunner at the square-leg fence. Smith went for 48 in 25 balls.
Rohit hit four of them in his triumphant 51 in 24 balls, whereas Kieron Pollard joined in with an 18-ball 23 before falling 13 runs short of the target. Then Ambati Rayudu ended up things with consecutive sixes off Agar, as Perth was smashed easily. Notably, a semifinal berth had been reserved. Mumbai reached their target as anticipated before the match.
