T20 Cricket: Clinical Northern Knights Send Mumbai Indians Crashing Out

Last year’s champion Mumbai Indians crashed out of the Champions League T20 losing to Northern Knights by six wickets in a one-sided game at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur.

MI were outclassed in all departments by the Kiwi side that did not put a foot wrong on their way to securing a place in the main draw. The table toppers in the qualification round, Knights go into the tournament proper along with Lahore Lions, who had earlier defeated Southern Express by 55 runs.

Chasing a 133-run target, NK were off to a brilliant start with openers Anton Devcich and Kane Williamson putting up an 83-run stand. By the time MI managed to get their first breakthrough in the tenth over, the asking rate was well under five runs per over. If anything that could have bothered the Knights from there on was some quick wickets but that didn’t happen. MI spinners failed to get any purchase ruling out any chance of a comeback.

Williamson top scored for NK with a 36-ball 53 before being snared by Jasprit Bumrah in the 13^th over but it was all too late in the day as Daryl Mitchell and Scott Styris completed the formalities with 16 balls to spare.

Earlier, poor shot selection and another top-order crumble crippled MI's chances of making it to the main draw as NK kept the Champions League Twenty20 holders to 132/9. Had it not been some useful contributions from the likes of skipper Kieron Pollard and tailenders Lasith Malinga (20 off eight balls) and Shreyas Gopal (24 off 12), MI would have struggled to get to the total they finally managed to.

Put in to bat by Daniel Flynn, MI got off to a disappointing start losing Michael Hussey (7) with just 10 runs on the board. It was the pressure created by the Knights' opening bowlers, Tim Southee and Trent Boult, that stifled MI's big-hitting batsmen who were forced to make mistakes. Southee and Boult maintained a nagging line to restrict MI to just 20 runs in their first four overs. The duo kept up the pressure for most of the innings, conceding just 45 runs between them in their eight overs and taking four wickets, three of which were to Southee.

The flow of wickets meant that MI were always under pressure to get up their run rate. Knights were excellent in the field, adding to the chokehold that Styris applied with his canny stump-to-stump seam-up deliveries. Williamson pulled off a brilliant catch, diving in front at short cover to get rid of Jalaj Saxena in the sixth over which gave Styris his first wicket, and the veteran allrounder removed Lendl Simmons in the next over. The MI opener paid the price of forcing himself too early in the shot while trying to cut a straight delivery that crashed into the stumps. Trying to make room for a late cut, Aditya Tare nicked to wicketkeeper Bradley Watling, and Styris bowed out with superb bowling figures of 4-0-21-3, a performance which earned him the Man of the Match award.

Mumbai Indians had lost half of their side by the 11th over with not even 50 runs on the scoreboard. Pollard managed to salvage some pride with a 24-ball 31 and Malinga and Gopal swung their bats in the last couple overs, but MI needed something exceptional to stop Knights from bolting into the main stage of the CLT20 but that did not happen.

With this win, the Northern Knights join Kings XI Punjab, Hobart Hurricanes, Cape Cobras and Barbados Tridents in Group B. Lahore Lions, who came second in the qualifiers, join Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Perth Scorchers and Dolphins in Group A.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 132/9 (Kieron Pollard 31, Scott Styris 3/21) lose to Northern Knights 133/4 in 17.2 overs (Kane Williamson 53, Jasprit Bumrah 2/26) by six wickets.