Chennai: Mumbai Indians clinched a thriller against the Chennai Super Kings by nine runs at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday. In a nail-biting finish, both the teams fought hard, but it was Keiron Pollard heroics that helped Mumbai beat Chennai in a thriller. Pollard, first, played a swash-buckling knock of 57 in just 38 balls and then took a breath-taking catch of dangerous Mahendra Singh Dhoni to hand Mumbai a nine-run win against Chennai.
Meanwhile the Mumbai bowlers put up a spirited performance that tamed the lions in their den. Ojha’s spell of four overs fetched him two wickets for just 16 runs whereas Munaf, though a bit expensive, managed to get three crucial wickets for Mumbai Indians and maintained the pressure on their batting line.
Dinesh Karthik was also among the best performers of the day who put up a great show when Mumbai Indians was looking in all sorts of trouble. But it was MS Dhoni who nearly took away the match from Mumbai Indians as he smashed 51 off 26 balls, including three monstrous sixes and five exquisite boundaries.
Chennai Super Kings lost their first wicket at the score of 10 runs. Murli Vijay lost his leg-stump to Munaf Patel, who was looking good in his opening spell. Suresh Raina joined Mike Hussey at the centre and was looking good for big innings but he wasted his chance when he played a length delivery on his pads and ball after taking an edge went straight into the hands of Ricky Ponting who was standing at point.
Chennai suffered another jolt when Mike Hussey got out when he was trying to fancy his chances against Harbhajan Singh. Hussy departed after scoring 20 off 23 balls. S Badrinath and Dwayne Bravo did tried to hold on but the lost the plot quickly and threw away their wickets after a good start and all the credit to Pragyan Ojha who did exceptionally well by creating the pressure throughout his spell of four overs. He gave away just 16 runs in his four overs.
M S Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja started hitting some big shots to accelerate the Chennai’s innings. They added 31 runs for the sixth wicket. Jadeja scored 16 runs in which he scored one four and one six.
But again CSK started losing their wickets. However Dhoni kept his cool and kept hitting those big hits to keep the scoreboard ticking. He batted till the final over of the match and scored a blistering 51. In last over, CSK needed 12 runs to win the match but after Dhoni departed on the first ball of final over, Mumbai mad the match out of it and won by nine runs.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians were off to a shaky start when they lost their first wicket in Sachin Tendulkar on the fifth ball of their innings to Dirk Nannes. He was adjudged leg before wicket and was looking rattled by the decision of umpire and gave that rare site of displeasure by exchanging few words. Mumbai ran into some serious trouble when they lost their second wicket of Ricky Ponting in the third over. Ponting was surprised by the awkward bouncer bowled by Ankit Rajpoot and Ashwin did no mistake in holding on to that catch.
Rohit Sharma came in to the middle and started off well with a welcome boundary. He was looking in good knick but he got out on the first delivery of the spell of Dwayne Bravo. Rohit Sharma yet again failed to deliver. Departure of Rohit brought Ambati Rayudu on the field and he tried to adjust himself to the tough situation.
On the other hand, Karthik played well to hold the innings together. He was adjudged leg before wicket at 37. He scored those 37 off 25 balls and hit four fours and one six. Rayudu followed him in the very next over when he was dismissed by Ben Laughlin. At this time, it was looking as if Mumbai won’t be able to reach even 100 runs but Pollard came to their rescue.
Keiron Pollard took hold of the situation and applied himself really well. Once settled, he started dealing in boundaries. He smashed three massive sixes and two fours to Dwayne Bravo in his last two overs. Pollard scored four fours and five sixes in his brutal knock of 57 runs off just 38 balls. He was very well complimented by Harbhajan Singh who gave few blows to CSK bowlers and scored run a ball 21. Mumbai Indians ended their innings with a competitive score of 148 for the loss of six wickets.
