Superstars take on underdogs in opener
Match facts
Friday, September 10
Start time 17.30 (15.30 GMT)
Big Picture
Cricket is not known to ask itself the question whether and why the show must go on. The show just keeps going on. The last two weeks have been serious scandal: players have looked back suspiciously at certain events in certain matches, fans have wondered if they actually follow a sport, cricket writers have asked themselves if the great strategic moves they wrote about were indeed strategic moves and not "spot-fixes", and the ICC has deemed three men unfit to represent cricket until they are cleared.The show perhaps has no choice but to go on. Sponsors have paid the monies, broadcasters have set up the cameras and the stump microphones, the teams have flown in and the second season of Champions League Twenty20 is upon us, though once again without teams from the country that holds the World Twenty20 crown.
On then to Highveld Lions v Mumbai Indians, which seems a hopeless mismatch on paper. It's Tendulkar, Pollard, Malinga, Zaheer, Bravo, Harbhajan v Alviro Petersen and lesser-known friends. It's also the classic tussle between the powerful and the underdog. One team is the triumph of money, a rich, powerful ensemble, most of them bought in an auction, but also a unit that has learned to play well enough as a team to have dominated the IPL. The other team is largely a collection of homegrown talent, who have stayed together through good times and bad, winning the inaugural domestic Twenty20 competition in South Africa, then struggling for three years before finishing runners-up last year.
The Lions play as a team day in and day out, across formats; Mumbai's superstars gather for a month or so every year just for Twenty20s, and their being together next year depends on another auction. This is the first time Mumbai are coming across a team that is not similarly acquired at an auction. At the same time Mumbai are one of the IPL teams to have invested wholeheartedly in domestic talent, in the likes of Ambati Rayudu, R Sathish and Saurabh Tiwary. Lions don't have much else other than domestic talent to work with. Petersen is the only current international in the squad, Neil McKenzie the most experienced, and Zander be Bruyn and Vaughn van Jaarsveld the nearly men. A clash of Twenty20 philosophies is a good way to start the Champions League with.
Watch out for...
Kieron Pollard is the ultimate modern T20 freelancer. Played for Trinidad & Tobago in last Champions League, is representing Mumbai now, could be wearing the South Australian Redbacks shirt next year. Recently had his face busted open by a Dominic Cork bouncer in the English domestic Twenty20. The last time he played for Mumbai, he was held back for too long, potentially costing them the IPL crown. Do Mumbai now know how best to use him?Robert Frylick topped the wicket charts in the South African domestic Twenty20 competition, and also managed to bowl two maiden overs. His 14 wickets in eight matches, at 16.21 per, carried Lions into the final. He is known to be a deceptive medium-pacer.
Key contests
Sachin Tendulkar v Ethan O'Reilly Tendulkar is known to make young unknown bowlers famous. O'Reilly fits the bill perfectly: a young, quick bowler, drawing attention for his deceptive pace, against the master who has seen it all. A bit of trivia: most unknown bowlers who have dismissed Tendulkar bowled have gone on to represent their national side. Ask Piyush Chawla, Sreesanth and R Vinay Kumar.
Stats and trivia
- Between them, Pollard and Bravo have played T20 cricket for eight teams at a serious level: West Indies, T&T, Mumbai Indians (both of them), Essex, Victoria, Kent (Bravo), South Australia and Somerset (Pollard). Between them, they have taken 151 T20 wickets. Pollard, with 81 of those, is No. 13 on the all-time list.
- van Jaarsveld has scored the most runs at the Wanderers, the venue for the tournament-opener. His 405 runs in Johannesburg have come at an average of 50.62 and a strike-rate of 142.60.
Quotes
"After having played for such a long time, I'm playing in South Africa in September for the first time in my career, so conditions are slightly different."
Sachin Tendulkar finds himself in a situation he hasn't been before in more than two decades of playing international cricket
"Nerves are a funny thing - it's always good to have some heading into a game. Just being totally laidback is not a good thing."
Lions fast bowler Cliff Deacon feels that nervousness can be used to good effect
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at Cricinfo