It's Mumbai Indians vs Northern Knights in Raipur tonight as a tricky qualifying stage of the Champions League Twenty20 reaches its climax. Catch all the live updates and scores here. (LIVE SCORECARD)
Michael Hussey and Lendl Simmons added 139 runs for the first wicket.
© BCCI
Defending champions Mumbai Indians face a must-win battle against Northern Knights from New Zealand in the last qualifier of the Champions League Twenty20.
Northern Knights, who have been on a roll, winning both their games against the Southern Express and Lahore Lions will obviously sail through if they defeat Mumbai.
However, if the Knights lose, Southern Express need to defeat Lahore Lions in the ongoing match.
However, if Lions manage to get the better of the hapless Southern Express, who are severely depleted without Tillekaratne Dilshan and Lasith Malinga, it will all come down to a net run rate scenario, provided of course Mumbai also beat the New Zealand side later tonight.
That would leave Northern Knights, Mumbai Indians and Lahore Lions with two wins and eight points each. In fact by the end of the first game today, if Lahore win, Mumbai will have a clear idea of the margin they need to upstage Northern Knights with.
Ideal scenarios for Mumbai Indians:
Southern Express defeat Lahore Lions and Mumbai Indians win against Northern Knights.
Even if Mumbai were to lose their game tonight despite a Southern Express win, the IPL side would still have a chance to make it to the main tournament. After two games, MI have a better net run rate (0.498) than Lions (-1.496). The Ambanis would only hope that their side do not crash to a very heavy defeat.
Mumbai Indians' Pragyan Ojha drops a catch during his team's match against Southern Express.
© BCCI
Mumbai Indians find themselves in a tricky spot, after losing their first game to Lahore Lions. It was no doubt an upset loss but for a side that has lost Sachin Tendulkar (to retirement) and Rohit Sharma (to skipper), they showed amazing resilience to come back and hammer Southern Express by nine wickets and keep alive their chances in the tournament.
Michael Hussey admitted MI are missing Rohit in the middle order and his absence has put a lot of pressure on the openers. But that is something they will have to cope with if they qualify for the next round.
Meanwhile, stand-in-skipper Keiron Pollard has urged Mumbai to improve their fielding standards . The CLT20 title holders clearly need to work on some flaws.
Catch all the live cricket score and live updates of the match here
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