Malinga sets up summit clash with RCB

This certainly wasn’t blockbuster showing like the one we had last evening. Sixes didn’t galore, fours didn’t come thick and fast and there wasn’t jam packed stadium either. But, it was one exciting game, alright. The game had countless swings and twists with either team giving everything to edge past another. In the end, Mumbai’s depth in the bowling-in particular having deadly Lasith Malinga in the ranks-proved to be the major difference between the IPL side and Somerset. Malinga took four for 20-all clean bowled- helped Mumbai to defeat the English county side by 10 runs and booking a place for summit clash of champions league against another IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore.

For 38 overs, both teams were very much in the game. During the fag end of the chase of 161 runs, Somerset needed 22 off the last two overs with two set batsmen at the crease and Mumbai skipper Harbhajan Singh took the bunt. Not so fancied James Franklin was given the duties to bowl the crucial over. The Kiwi pacer, who hardly bowls these days, didn’t let his team down removing both Craig Kieswetter and Jos Butler and conceding only seven runs. It meant 15 required off Malinga’s last over and there was no miracle. Malinga, as expected, defended the runs in style castling two Somerset batters and gave away only four runs to fashion out the victory.

It was Malinga who had rattled Somerset’s chase early dismissing Peter Trego for duck and Rolf Van der Merwe for ten to reduce them to 17 for two. Kieswetter and James Hildreth steadied the ship with some mature and skillful batting to ward off Mumbai’s spin attack. After stabilizing the innings, both went for the shots to keep asking rate under the check. Hildreth preferred sweep shots and Kieswetter launched some fabulous strokes through the arc between wide mid-off and mid-on.

The pair put on solid 83 for the third wicket and put their side in a comfortable position with score reaching 100 in 14th over, Harbhajan, who wasn’t at his best, found some turn to break the stand. Hildreth’s love for sweep strokes proved to be his undoing with ball coming off his bat to hit the stumps for a 33-ball 39 laced with half a dozen fours.

Kieswetter wasn’t done, though. The England wicketkeeper kept hitting fours and found a willing partner in Butler to add another 41. His 62 came off 46 including seven fours but fell at a crucial juncture in search of quick runs.

The opener followed Butler, who was clean bowled by Franklin, soon to end Somerset’s hopes. Malinga’s last was typical of the fast bowler combing his Yorkers with some well disguised slower ones.

Earlier Mumbai’s batting effort was marked with recession in the middle overs sandwiched between Blizzard’s fifty upfront and breezy little cameos from the lower middle order. Blizzard made up for having a quiet tournament till this game by taking calculated risks at the top to give his team a solid base. The IPL side was pegged back with regular wickets in the middle stage but Kieran Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav and Rajagopal Satish hit more than run a ball 20’s each to provide the innings late order push.

Young opener Sarul Kanwar departed early for a six-ball two when pulled Steve Kirby straight into Jos Butler’s lap stationed at deep mid-wicket. Kirby, though, couldn’t maintain discipline bowling back to back no-balls with second free-hit dispatched into stands by Blizzard. The left hander was in a terrific touch from the beginning threading two off-drives between the bowler and mid-off. He backed away to hit few up over inner circle through off-side as Ambati Rayudu receded floor for Blizzard’s neat and innovative stroke-play.

A steady stand of 43 between the two was ended when Rayudu tried to force Adam Dibble through cover only managing to edge it the wicketkeeper only. The right hander went for run-a-ball 19 with two fours. Blizzard was busy at other end bringing his half-century off 34th when Butler parried his slog sweep for a six.

Mumbai were well placed with score reading 86 for two at the end of eleventh over before Somerset spinners struck to put brakes on the scoring rate. VD Merwe caught James Franklin plumb infront of the stumps for six and Murali Karthik got the big fish. The former Indian spinner castled Blizzard for a 54-laced with five fours and three sixes-when latter tried to slog sweep the spinner.

Pollard didn’t take long to get the big shot hitting VD Merwe for a six over mid-wicket. He followed the dose against Trego’s gentle medium pace as bail sailed straight over the bowler’s head for one of the tournament’s biggest hits.

Pollard’s 18-ball 24 was ended with Somerset skipper Alfonso Thomas rattling his stumps with a well directed fuller delivery. Pollard’s departure wasn’t felt much as youngsters Yadav and Satish injected some quick late runs.

Playing in place for Andrew Symonds, Yadav hit three fours and Satish a six to loot 20 runs off penultimate over bowled by Thomas. Yadav took only 19 balls for his unbeaten 23 and Satish’s breezy 25 came off just 12 balls.