It was one of those days, when Mumbai Indians missed their regular skipper and leading run-scorer Rohit Sharma dearly and faced a crushing six-wicket defeat in their Champions League T20 encounter against Lahore Lions.
Lions, powered by Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal, chased down a 136-run target, with eight balls to spare. The defending champions were never in control and were always playing a catching game, while on the other hand Lions were in control since the start.
Mumbai, after put into bat, faced early jolts as Lendl Simmons (7), Jalaj Saxena (0) and Ambati Ryudu (3) fell cheaply. Pacer Aizaz Cheema and Wahab Riaz never allowed the two-time champions to get going and put them under pressure.
The former champions never recovered from the early blows and kept losing wickets on regular intervals. Michael Hussey and Aditya Tare, however, stitched a 44-run partnership for the fourth wicket but once the former departed the recovery work derailed.
Tare, meanwhile, anchored one end but with not enough runs on the board it all went in vain and the wicketkeeper-batsman finally fell of Riaz. Harbhajan Singh (18) and Praveen Kumar (20 not out) played little cameos at the end to help Mumbai cross 130 runs mark.
In chase of a mere total, the Pakistan T20 champions were never under real threat. Praveen and Jasprit Bumrah did create early pressure but there was not enough total on the board to create any sort of a panic in Lions’ dugout.
Shehzad (34) and Nasir Jamshed (26) made a 51-run for the first wicket and put Lions well on course of a comfortable victory. There was no real panic in the team, despite losing few quick wickets as run rate was under control.
Lions lost Jamshed, skipper Mohammad Hafeez (18) and Saad Nasim (6) quickly but Umar Akmal and Asif Raza stitched an unbeaten 39 runs partnership for the fifth wicket to drive their team home. Akmal (38 not out) finished the innings quickly as the Lions clinched all three points from the tie.
