Dwayne Smith smashed an unbeaten half century to help Mumbai Indians beat Highvels Lions by seven wickets and keep their chances alive in the Champions League Twenty20 in Jaipur on Friday. Smith steered his sides chase with a 63-run unbeaten knock that came of just 47 balls as Mumbai overwhelmed the 140-run target in 18.3 overs overs. Kieron Pollard also played an unbeaten 32-run cameo towards the end which was studded with two fours and three huge sixes sixes to help Mumbais cause. Earlier,Mumbai produced a fine bowling display to restrict the Lions to a modest 140 for five. Opting to bowl,Mumbais pacers utilised the seaming conditions of the Sawai Man Singh pitch before their spinners came to the party to stop Lions from posting a formidable total. Early setback Chasing the target,Mumbai suffered a big blow early losing the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar (5) in the third over. Tendulkar was undone by a slower delivery from Sohail Tanvir as the ball went through his defence to crash onto the stumps. Smith and Dinesh Karthik added 31 runs for the second wicket before the latter cut leg-spinner Imran Tahir straight to Petersen at backward point as Mumbai slumped to 47 for 2. Smith,however,continued his attacking game and together with captain Rohit Sharma (20) kept Mumbai in the hunt,sharing 43 runs for the third wicket in just five overs. Smith was at his aggressive best as found boundaries with ease to notch up his fifty in just 33 balls. Rohit provided him able support before perishing in the 13th over,caught by substitute fielder Bavuma off Dwaine Pretorious. He struck two fours during his 17-ball knock. But Smith and Pollard ensured that there was no further hiccups for Mumbai as they stitched unbeaten 51 runs off just 35 balls to ensure a win for their side. At the start of the game,Lions did not have the best of the starts losing both their openers inside the 50-run mark. Rassie van der Dussen (13) was the first to depart as he mistimed a pull straight to Rishi Dhawan at square leg off Mitchell Johnson. Even though Johnson picked up a wicket,he was nowhere near his best,constantly spraying the ball around. six and out Rohit introduced Pragyan Ojha in the ninth over and the left-arm spinner produced results immediately by clean bowling Jean Symes after the batsman clobbered the bowler for a six in the previous delivery. Ojha struck again in his next over,picking up the wicket of Sohail Tanvir caught by Smith at the mid-wicket boundary. Then came in Lions skipper Alviro Petersen (35 not out) and together with Pretorious (31 not out) company ressurected Lions innings with a 59-run sixth wicket stand. Brief scores: Lions 140/5 (A Peterson 35*,D Pretorius 31*,P Ojha 2/26) lost to Indians 141/3 (D Smith 63*,K Pollard 31*,S Tanvir 1/15)
