Northern Knights crushed defending champions Mumbai Indians by six wickets to qualify for the main leg of the Champions League Twenty20 and knock the Indians out in Raipur last night.
The game was set up early on by the Knights bowlers as they struck at regular intervals to stifle the Mumbai innings.
Seamer Tim Southee (3-24) and all-rounder Scott Styris (3-21) were on the mark for the Kiwi side as they restricted Mumbai to 132 for nine.
And they overhauled the target with ease, openers Anton Devcich (39) and Kane Williamson (53) adding 83 runs to set up the chase. Man-of-the match Styris was proud of the team’s performance.
“We’ve been trying to get into this tournament for 4-5 years. Now we have some very good young players. Kane Williamson is a quality player, and the two quicks are world class,” Styris said.
On his part, Williamson said his side’s fielding improved dramatically at a crucial stage, which was the difference in the end.
“We started off the competition a bit shaky with our fielding, but we know we are a good fielding outfit and it was great to put up a good display in the last two games. It’s great to go into the main draw and hope to keep the confidence going,” Williamson said after the match.
Earlier, Mumbai’s batting floundered yet again. Apart from captain Kieron Pollard, who scored 31 off 24 balls, none of the Mumbai batsmen showed enough courage to take on the disciplined Northern bowling attack that used a sluggish pitch to great effect.
It was Shreyas Gopal’s 24 off 12 balls which took Mumbai to a half decent score in the end.
At the start of the innings, Mike Hussey (seven) lost his patience as he tried to charge Southee in the fourth over of the innings but failed to get the required elevation as Scott Kuggeleijn took a diving catch at mid-on.
All-rounder Jalaj Saxena (10) failed yet again at the top of the order as he managed a six of Kuggeleijn before being dismissed by a brilliant Williamson catch at extra cover, with Styris being the bowler.
The pitch helped the Knights medium pacers and even the normally attacking Lendl Simons (13 off 17 balls) found the going difficult. He too lost his patience and tried to slog Styris but was clean bowled. Mumbai were reeling at 34 for three in the eighth over and never really got out of the rut.
In the chase, Williamson played a superb knock of 53 from 36 balls as the Knights went about their work without any fuss.
Even though they lost wickets as the target neared, Mumbai were never in with a chance. Pollard congratulated the Knights for their win.
“Most teams, when they come to India they want to beat Mumbai Indians so they bring their A game. The Knights fielded well, we could have had 150-160. They could have relaxed but they didn’t, that’s their professionalism,” he said.
The Knights thus finished the qualifiers unbeaten, winning all three matches comprehensively.
