Redbacks defeat Mumbai Indians by 5 Wickets | Mumbai Indians Loss

The Redbacks sneaked home to a stunning victory by beating the Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets in the final over, chasing down Mumbai's massive 180 in their second Champions League twenty20 match at Kingsmead, Durban on Tuesday.Replying to Mumbai Indians 180, South Australia Redbacks Openers got off to a flying start with a 112 runs stand for the first wicket. Mumbai were abysmal in the field and paid the price for their shoddy display. Quite a few fumbles in the field and some serious drop catches overdid their fine effort with the bat.

Jonty Rhodes will be a most unhappy man. The South African fielding coach of the Mumbai Indians was known for scorching the field and holding on to impossible catches and for effecting flying run-outs. But his wards on Tuesday let the game slip through their fingers as they lost out on the all-important two points that they badly needed to keep their chances alive in the Champions League T20.

Skipper Klinger (50) and Harris (56) shared an 81-ball 112-run opening partnership to set the tone for the successful runchase as Redbacks reached the target with three balls to spare and inched closer to the semifinal berth.

Opener Harris was dropped twice as he hammered Mumbai Indian bowlers making full use of the droped catches. But Murtaza brought Mumbai back into the game, getting rid off Harris. An over later, Lasith Malinga dismissed the other opener Klinger, who had just reached his fifty.

Quick wickets gave Mumbai Indians the chance to get back in to tha match but Christian (16) scored some useful runs towards the end but the cameos from Borgas (14 not out off 5) and Cooper (19 not out off 5) came in pretty handy in the win for their side.

Earlier after winning the toss and batting first, a brilliant cameo by Saurabh Tiwary and Kieron Pollard inspired Mumbai Indians to a healthy total of 180/7 in their quota of 20 overs. Tiwary started his innings in a careful manner but hit top gear in 16th over when he hit Aaron O'Brien for 25 runs in his last over. Tiwary hit four massive sixes and a boundary in his knock of 44 form 25 deliveries.

Windies all-rounder Pollard was in a destructive mode from the word go as he destroyed the opposition bowling attack all over the park in his swashbuckling innings of 36 from 21 balls before he was caught in the deep.

Mumbai Indians got off to the worst possible start against Redbacks when they lost opener Shikhar Dhawan in the second over. Dhawan (2 off 7) was caught behind on the bowling of Gary Putland.

Captain Sachin Tendulkar soon followed his fellow opener as he was clean bowled by Aaron O'Brien for 20 from 17 balls trying to go for the full monty.

Mumbai Indians were pushed back further after South African batsmen JP Duminy (3 off 6) was caught and bowled by Aaron O'Brien. Mumbai Indians were struggling at 47/3 after 7.3 overs after Duminy's wicket.

Middle order batsman Ambati Rayudu looked promising ever since he strode into the middle but his inning couldn't mature into anything big after he was brilliantly caught by Daniel Harris in the deep of the bowling of Cullen Bailey for 38 from 32 deliveries.

Dwayne Bravo finished the Mumbai Indians innings in style with 22 from 12 balls. Mumbai Indians smashed 122 runs from the last ten overs.

For Redbacks Aaron O'Brien was pick of the bowlers with 2/49. Gary Putland, Cullen Bailey, Shaun Tait took one scalp each.

At the end of the game the reactions on the faces of owners Mukesh and Nita Ambani said it all. Despair and disbelief is what was writ large on their faces, especially Mukesh bhai, who sat next to filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra and would have never have expected such a climax in a roller-coaster script that seemed going the happy ending way at the intermission.
Mumbai had fought back brilliantly while batting after they lost three crucial wickets, including that of Sachin Tendulkar, with the score on 47. Soon after Ambati Rayudu exited and Saurabh Tiwary and Keiron Pollard came together to put on a shock and awe treatment as they belted the Redbacks to the outbacks and one seriously began to think that Mumbai finally had it within them to get to a total without having to be over reliant on Tendulkar. To their credit they managed to get to what looked like a sufficiently defendable score of 180.