Rain thwarts Mumbai and Yorkshire
by Ant Sims 18 October 2012, 20:22
Rain ruined the Mumbai Indians' party at Newlands after they raced to 156-6 in 17.5 overs against Yorkshire in their Karbonn Smart Champions League T20 clash on Thursday.
Full Scorecard: Mumbai Indians v Yorkshire
Play was abandoned before Mumbai could complete their innings and after a blistering knock from Kieron Pollard, the defending champions now have to rely on other results to go their way in order to stay in the competition.
Yorkshire won the toss and elected to bowl first and Dwayne Smith got off to a firing start, dispatching Joe Root for two consecutive sixes in the opening over.
There was some reprieve for Yorkshire early on, though, as Sachin Tendulkar was run out while Smith was caught ball-watching.
Tendulkar hit the ball to mid-off and set off for the single, but Smith had turned his back on his batting partner and Tendulkar had to turn back. A good throw from Gary Ballance did the rest and Yorkshire had found an early breakthrough.
Smith followed after adding 37 off 26 when he went after a full toss. The ball went straight to the man at deep square leg and Root had gotten some revenge for the beating he received earlier.
It was a stop-start affair with the bat for Mumbai from there on as nobody really looked settled.
Azeem Rafiq came back in the 15th over to pick up his second wicket, dismissing Ambati Rayudu for 15, the right-hander hitting the ball to short extra cover where Yorkshire skipper Dan Hodgson took a good, low diving catch which had to be referred upstairs.
The floodgates then opened, in more ways than one as Harbhajan Singh walked out to the middle and whacked two consecutive sixes off Rafiq to finish the over.
Kieron Pollard at the other end then decided to get in on the action and hit Adil Rashid for two fours and a six before settling for a single and Rashid struck off the final ball of the over to dismiss Harbhajan.
Patterson continued from the other end and Pollard continued the charge hitting a four straight down the ground.
The rain then came down and players were rushed off the field. They came back for a brief while and play resumed, with Pollard continuing where he left off - hitting another big six over long-on to race to 37 off 20 before rain stopped play once again.
There was no sign of the weather letting up and heavy rain persisted until play was eventually called off at 8:20pm. A lot now rests on the Lions match against Yorkshire on Saturday. If the Lions win, it will mean that they qualify and all other teams are eliminated.
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MUMBAI INDIANS - Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Smith, Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh (capt), Mitchell Johnson, Dhawal Kulkarni, Lasith Malinga, Pragyan Ojha.
YORKSHIRE: Andrew Gale (capt), Phil Jaques, Joe Root, Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance, Adil Rashid, Dan Hodgson (wk), Azeem Rafiq, Ryan Sidebottom, Steve Patterson, Moin Ashraf
