Back-to-back wins over two star-studded Indian Premier League teams — Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings — has made the Highveld Lions a force to reckon with in the ongoing Champions League Twenty20 tournament, feels senior batsman Neil McKenzie.
After getting the better of defending CLT20 champion Mumbai Indians in its first match, the South African outfit stunned Chennai Super Kings by six wickets at Newlands on Tuesday.
“It’s always good to beat the IPL sides or any side for that matter. All the teams that are here are the champions in their own countries. So, we knew every game’s going to be a tough game. People have taken us in (after the two wins) and there’s a lot of support for us,” McKenzie said.
The Lions’ produced a thoroughly commendable performance on Tuesday as it chased down Chennai’s 158 for six with three balls to spare and that too against a quality seam attack in Doug Bollinger, Ben Hilfenhaus and Albie Morkel.
“It’s always tough to come to Cape Town’s coastal wicket and chase. But we bowled up front to make early inroads and then backed it up with our batting,” McKenzie said.
“The two Aussies in CSK (Bollinger and Hilfenhaus) bowled incredibly well against us up front, put us under pressure and we’ve seen in this tournament so far that losing early wickets in the first six overs is critical. But we managed to get over the line. All credit to the boys; they all came good,” he added.
McKenzie is also delighted to carry forward the winning momentum.
“Yes, the good thing for us is that we’ve maintained the winning attitude. The last time, we did beat the Mumbai Indians and lost our next game and had to depend on the net run-rate to get into the next round. So, it was nice to maintain that winning momentum this time in this game,” he said.
