DURBAN: A few lusty blows from Harbhajan Singh at the end of the innings wasn’t enough to spare his team from their third defeat in four matches when Mumbai Indians faced Sydney Sixers in the last group game of Group B in the Champion League Twenty20 here on Monday.
Chasing 137 for victory, Mumbai were only able to manage 124-8 in their 20 overs, with Harbhajan hitting 20 runs (three fours and a six) in the last over, bowled by Mitchell Starc.
Mumbai were already out of the tournament, but they would have wanted to win at least their last match. Unfortunately for them, they came up against the best team in the CLT20 thus far, Sydney.
MI had done well in the first innings to restrict their opponents – who chose to bowl first after winning the toss – to 136-7, with Munaf Patel taking 2-17 in four overs.
Steven Smith gave his side something to bowl at by top-scoring with a run-a-ball 41.
Mumbai were off to a slowish start, but they had accumulated 52 runs before Dwayne Smith fell to Moises Henriques for 26.
Henriques also then took the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, who fell for his tournament-best score of 22; he made a disappointing 47 runs across four innings in the competition.
The Indian team then lost too many wickets and, combined with the rising required run rate, they found the task too difficult.
Smith was named Man-of-the-Match and the Sixers leave the group stage with four wins out of four. (PTI)
Brief scores:
Sydney: 136-7, 20 overs (S Smith 41; M Patel 2-17)
Mumbai: 124-8, 20 overs (D Smith 26; P Cummins 2-16)
