Highveld Lions Beat Mumbai Indians in First Airtel Champions League T20 2010

JOHANNESBURG — Mumbai Indians captain and batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and elected to field first against Highveld Lions in the opening match of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament at Wanderers Friday.

Mumbai Lions play the first match of Champions League T20. The game is played at Wanderers in Johannesburg to watch Sachin Tendulkar leading the Mumbai side, and Lions captain Alvira Petersen.

Teams

Highveld Lions (RSA)

A.N. Petersen (capt), J.D. Vandiar, V.B. van Jaarsveld, R. Cameron, N.D. McKenzie, Z. de Bruyn, T.L. Tsolekile (wkt), R. Frylinck, S. Burger, A.M. Phangiso, E. O'Reilly

The Lions have too much experience for them, and cause problems. Limiting Neil McKenzie and Zander de Bruyn, none of the others have much to look as captain is a bit inexperienced.

Mumbai Indians (IND)

S. Tendulkar (capt), S. Dhawan, A.T. Rayudu (wkt), R. Sathish, J.P. Duminy, K.A. Pollard, R. McLaren, Harbhajan Singh, Z. Khan, S.L. Malinga, A.G. Murtaza

Mumbai has a strong bar assembly, which will see Sachin Tendulkar opening the innings and batters are Saurabh Tiwary, Drawyne Bravo, Kieron Pollard down the order. Zaheer Khan seems to have regained the form that made him effective bowler with Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga

Opening the batting for South Africa's Lions, the left-handed Vandiar hit 71 off 48 balls, including three soaring sixes, to give the unfancied home team an opportunity to beat the star-studded Mumbai lineup.

Former South Africa test player Neil McKenzie added 56 for the Lions and shared a 64-run partnership with Vandiar.

Jonathan Vandiar smashed his highest Twenty20 score Friday to lead the Highveld Lions to 186 for five against Mumbai Indians in the opening match of the Champions League tournament at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg

Final Score:

Highveld Lions: 186/5 (20 Overs)

Mumbai Indians: 177/6 (20 Overs)

Result:  Highveld Lions Wins By 9 Runs

Champions League T20 set to begin today

Johannesburg: CLT20 would begin today with much fan fare. Champions League T20 2010 schedule and latest update are available via ESPNStar.com.

There are 10 teams participating in this mega event. Though, hype has been created by the promoters through media, but spectators here don’t appear as eager, as of now, as they were when the IPL came here last year.


The promoters are leaving no stone unturned to shore up the TRP ratings for the multi-million dollar event, but it seems, there is huge impact of the latest match fixing scandal at Lord’s.



If we talk about the ticket sales, promoters are still enthusiastic. In Durban there is a big Indian community, so it’s being expected that they would be participating.


Cricket South Africa officials have claimed that Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth have local teams, so sales have been fine there. But, the only venue that’s slightly sluggish is Pretoria.
 
As Matthew Hayden said: Cricket is a 'runaway train' - impossible to clean completely