Clinical Knights knock out Mumbai

A substandard batting performance from defending champions Mumbai Indians led to their elimination from the Champions League as Northern Knights won their third qualification game in a row. An all-round display from Knights handed Mumbai their second loss in three matches, a six-wicket defeat that ensured Knights and Lahore Lions qualified for the main tournament.

All three teams were in the fray to advance to the next stage and Mumbai had to win the match, by any margin, to qualify. But once they were put in to bat, their task became an uphill one when they were reduced to 46 for 5 by the Knights seamers in the 11th over. The lower order helped them recover, but the chase of 133 was made easy by the Knights openers who steered them to another convincing win.

Desperate to get a strong start, Mumbai never got in the groove as Trent Boult and Tim Southee stifled them with their nagging line outside off, conceding only 11 in the first four overs, and accounting for Michael Hussey. First-change Scott Kuggeleijn conceded 15 in the fifth over, but Scott Styris ensured Knights retained suffocating control over proceedings, running through Mumbai's batting with three wickets. He got rid of Jalaj Saxena, Lendl Simmons and Aditya Tare, with all three batsmen dismissed while making room to target the off side. Saxena handed a low catch to short cover, Simmons missed completely and lost his off stump and Tare looked to cut late but the ball bounced a tad extra and took an edge to land in BJ Watling's gloves.

Boult then came back for his second spell to account for Ambati Rayudu and Mumbai were crumbling at 46 for 5. Outstanding fielding complemented the bowling, cutting off singles and not allowing Mumbai to rotate the strike under pressure.

Mumbai nearly tripled the score from there, in two stages. Kieron Pollard and Harbhajan Singh stalled the fall of wickets for nearly five overs, and after Harbhajan fell for 10, Pollard started the fightback by striking three boundaries to push the score to 89. Lasith Malinga then struck three fours and a six off successive deliveries, two of them off the edge, and Shreyas Gopal topped it by making room and collecting 16 from the last over to lift the total to 132.

Knights were hardly bothered in the chase, despite losing four wickets, as their openers put on a domineering stand of 83. Anton Devcich took charge initially and a calm Kane Williamson rotated the strike from the other end. They added 49 runs in the Powerplay, mostly striking the ball around the ground, finding gaps regularly, and converting the loose deliveries on offer.

Bowling changes after the Powerplay didn't help Mumbai, as Williamson chipped the ball into the gaps and used his feet against the spinners to accelerate. Devcich cashed in on the full tosses and short balls before he became the first of four batsmen to fall to soft dismissals, three of them popping catches to catching fielders in front of the wicket. But by the time Mumbai removed the openers, Knights needed only 30 from 43 balls and even though Watling gave his wicket away to fall for a duck, Styris came in and hit the winning runs with 16 balls to spare, after Daryl Mitchell had scored 15 off Malinga in the previous over.