Umar Akmal hit Jasprit Bumrah for a four, six and four in the penultimate over of the Lahore Lions innings against Mumbai Indians to seal the win for his team in their Oppo Champions League Twenty20 qualifier in Raipur on Saturday (September 13) night, but the match had swung in Lahore’s direction well before Akmal applied the finishing touches with an 18-ball 38. Mumbai, asked to bat first, had put up only 135 for 7 and Lahore had to implode to fail in their chase. They didn’t, and a six-wicket win was achieved with the clock inching towards midnight.
Chasing the modest target, Ahmed Shehzad and Nasir Jamshed looked the part all right, going about things sensibly, not attempting anything silly but waiting for the loose ball to keep the scoreboard moving along while taking singles all the time.
Shehzad did the early big-hitting, taking on Bumrah – who had bowled a decent first over for just four runs – for six, four and four in the fifth over of the innings, and Lahore ended their Power Play at 43 for no loss. Perfect, keeping in mind the small target. But though there was absolutely no need for him to try and up the tempo, Shehzad stepped out to Pragyan Ojha, mistimed his attempted slog over long-on, and found Kieron Pollard diving spectacularly to pull off the catch. Shehzad’s 34 came off 33 balls but he really needed to hang around.
The total then was 51 for 1, and three overs later, with the total on 66, Jamshed had a brain-freeze, setting off for a run, thinking that the ball had gone past Aditya Tare behind the stumps after missing a Harbhajan Singh delivery. It hadn’t, and Jamshed was a goner after a 24-ball 26.
Again, with 38 balls to go and 55 runs to get, Saad Nasim tried to pull an Ojha delivery that was a bit too full for the stroke, and only found Jalaj Saxena at midwicket.
But Lahore had Mohammad Hafeez and Akmal, experienced, patient, and batting with a plan. The dew had made things tricky by this stage, putting an unwanted sheen on every available surface, and Lahore were moving towards the target smoothly when a Pollard delivery stopped on Hafeez, and the Lahore captain could only lob a catch to Mike Hussey at mid-off.
Lahore did a few things slightly wrong in what could have been a straightforward chase, and Ojha and Harbhajan were brilliant, returning combined figures of 3 for 44 from their eight overs. But, in the end, Mumbai just didn’t have enough runs on the board, and that made the difference. The win was achieved with eight balls to spare and Lahore had taken a big step in the direction of the main draw of the tournament.
Earlier, it all started pretty slowly for Mumbai, with only 20 runs on the board after three overs, and then it got worse when Aizaz Cheema had Lendl Simmons and Saxena, brought in as a replacement of sorts for Rohit Sharma, out off consecutive balls. Within five balls, 20 for 2 had become 23 for 3 when Ambati Rayudu played the most bizarre stroke, stepping out to smash Asif Raza to Madhya Pradesh but only edging him to Akmal behind the stumps.
Hussey was still in the middle though, his selection ahead of Corey Anderson making perfect sense at that stage, and along with Tare, he began the rebuilding. Scoring was slow, and after Cheema’s first spell of 2 for 9, Hafeez and Imran Ali kept up the good work, ensuring Mumbai only reached 62 at the halfway stage.
And then it got better for Lahore with the introduction of Wahab Riaz, who bowled pretty much the perfect delivery second ball of his first over, short of length on fourth stump, and Hussey could only nick it behind the stumps. Imran followed that up with an inch perfect yorker that went under Pollard’s bat and hit bull’s eye – Mumbai 94 for 5 after 15.3.
The capacity crowd has started chanting ‘Sachin, Sachin’ by then, and it did seem like Mumbai could have done with the little big man’s services. On the field things refused to look up, with Tare – who had hooked Imran and swung Riaz for sixes – playing Riaz to midwicket after a 36-ball 37.
Harbhajan, however, can be counted upon to swing his bat effectively in any situation, and he hit a couple of lusty blows before being run out for a 10-ball 18, and Praveen Kumar added an unbeaten 14-ball 20, to give the total a degree of competitiveness. In the end though, it wasn’t nearly enough.
In Sunday’s double-header, it will be winner v winner when Lahore face Northern Knights, and in the game between Saturday’s losers, the thing to watch out for is which of Mumbai and Southern Express regroup best, and quickest
MUMBAI INDIANS
LMP Simmons c Wahab Riaz b Aizaz Cheema 7
MEK Hussey c †Umar Akmal b Wahab Riaz 28
Jalaj S Saxena c Nasir Jamshed b Aizaz Cheema 0
AT Rayudu c †Umar Akmal b Asif Raza 3
AP Tare c Adnan Rasool b Wahab Riaz 37
KA Pollard b Imran Ali 6
Harbhajan Singh run out (Nasir Jamshed/Wahab Riaz) 18
P Kumar not out 20
SL Malinga not out 1
Extras (b 4, lb 8, w 3) 15
Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 135
Did not batPP Ojha, JJ Bumrah
Fall of wickets 1-20 (Simmons, 3.3 ov), 2-20 (Jalaj S Saxena, 3.4 ov), 3-23 (Rayudu, 4.3 ov), 4-67 (Hussey, 11.2 ov), 5-94 (Pollard, 15.3 ov), 6-107 (Tare, 17.1 ov), 7-127 (Harbhajan Singh, 19.2 ov)
Bowling
Asif Raza 3-0-18-1, Aizaz Cheema 4-0-22-2, Mohammad Hafeez 3-0-17-0, Imran Ali 3-0-22-1, Wahab Riaz 4-0-31-2, Adnan Rasool 3-0-13-0
LAHORE LIONS
Nasir Jamshed st †Tare b Harbhajan Singh 26
Ahmed Shehzad c Pollard b Ojha 34
Mohammad Hafeez c Hussey b Pollard 18
Saad Nasim c Jalaj S Saxena b Ojha 6
Umar Akmal not out 38
Asif Raza not out 14
Extras (lb 2, nb 1) 3
Total (4 wickets; 18.4 overs) 139
Did not batUmar Siddiq, Imran Ali, Aizaz Cheema, Adnan Rasool, Wahab Riaz
Fall of wickets 1-51 (Ahmed Shehzad, 7.5 ov), 2-66 (Nasir Jamshed, 10.4 ov), 3-81 (Saad Nasim, 13.5 ov), 4-100 (Mohammad Hafeez, 15.6 ov)
Bowling
P Kumar 3-0-15-0, JJ Bumrah 3.4-0-35-0, SL Malinga 3-0-30-0, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-26-1, PP Ojha 4 0-18-2, KA Pollard 1-0-13-1
MATCH DETAILS
Toss – Lahore Lions, who chose to field
Points – Lahore Lions 4, Mumbai Indians 0
Player of the match – Umar Akmal (Lahore Lions)
Umpires – VA Kulkarni and C Shamshuddin
TV umpire – CK Nandan
Match referee – Chinmay Sharma
Reserve umpire – K Srinath
