Steve Smith and Ben Rohrer played crucial knocks to help New South Wales Blues to register a five wicket victory against Mumbai Indians in an important group A match of Champions League. Chasing a target of 101 on a tired Chepauk pitch, the Australian side were deep in the dumps reeling 28 for 5 before Smith-Rohrer stand saw them through. The pair added more than run a ball 73 showing lot of maturity, class and alertness to the situation. Smith creaming only six of the match and five fours in his 45 ff 47 while left handed Rohrer concentrated more on rotating the strike on his way to 28-ball 26. The target was achieved comfortably in the end with three overs yet to be bowled.
The Blues’ reply was punctured in the second over with young fast bowler Abu Nechim removing both openers cheaply. The right arm pacer had Shane Watson bowled off thigh pad first ball of the over and his partner David Warner offered a simple catch to Harbhajan Singh at short covers. Lasith Malinga ripped a slow yorker to trap opposition skipper Simon Katich infront of the wickets before Nechim dismissed wicketkeeper Daniel Smith caught behind the wickets. Young leggie Yuzvendra Chahal put his team on top getting last match’s hero Moises Henriques leg before the wicket to have the Blues’ in the deep hole.
Smith and Rohrer made sure they kept scoreboard ticking over and also didn’t give any chance to bowlers. It was measured stand with Smith showing some aggression to have asking rate under six runs-an-over all the time.
Earlier Mumbai could manage only 100 in their allotted twenty overs with James Franklin emerging as the only substantial contributor. The Kiwi left hander remained unbeaten 41 but rest of the pack failed to deliver. The poor batting display was combination of lack of application from batsmen and disciplined NSW bowling on a very treacherous Chennai pitch.
The IPL side were rocked upfront by experienced pacer Stuart Clarke getting Aiden Blizzard first over. Young Sarul Kanwar offered a simple catch to point fielder off Mitchell Starc and Clarke struck again removing Ambati Rayudu for. Talented pacer Patrick Cummins got a huge wicket by castling Kieran Pollard to put Mumbai in trouble with scoreboard reading 27 for four.
Franklin dropped the anchor to add 23 with struggling Andrew Symonds before left arm pacer Steve O’Keefe claimed wickets of Symonds and Rajagopal Satish. With score at 70 for 6, it looked Mumbai would crumble soon but Franklin combined with Harbhajan to take score to 100.
The left hander cracked five fours during his 51-ball tenure at the crease.
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