Kolkata: Fantastic batting by Keiron Pollard followed by some brilliant bowling by Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh and Mitchell Johnson helped Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs to win their maiden Indian Premier League title here on Sunday.
Chasing a target of 149 to win, Chennai Super Kings' skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni did try his best to make a match out of it with a brilliant 63 runs off 45 balls but that wasn’t enough after the batting failures of Mike Hussey and Suresh Raina, who were dismissed early in the innings.
Earlier, it was some sensible batting from Ambati Rayudu which was clubbed with the fire-power of Keiron Pollard that helped Mumbai post a defending total. Rayudu scored 37 runs whereas Pollard smacked 60 runs off 32 balls which were studded with seven fours and three sixes.
Dwayne Bravo ended with the figures of 4/42 after his four overs
Chennai super Kings had the worst possible start as they lost the wickets of Hussey and Raina in the very first over to Malinga, who was sensational in the match. The duo was followed by S Badrinath who didn’t trouble the scorers and got out for duck.
Murali Vijay and Dwayne Bravo started playing some shots and it was looking as if they might revive after an ugly start. But the partnership of 32 runs came to an end when Rishi Dhawan dismissed Bravo. Johnson dismissed Vijay and Harbhajan sent back Ravindra Jadeja to the dug-out and CSK were reduced to 6/39.
Thereafter, Dhoni started taking the as much strikes as possible but Albie Morkel and Chris Morris couldn’t stand the terrific bowling of Ojha and Harbhajan. Dhoni played some glorious shot in the end but it was just too late for CSK to sneak through and Mumbai Indians were crowned the new champions of Indian premier League. Malinga and Johnson gave away just 41 runs in their eight overs and picked up four wickets amongst them.
Earlier it was some good bowling from the likes of Mohit Sharma and Albie Morkel who dismissed the Mumbai openers in first seven balls of the match. Dwayne Smith scored just four whereas Aditya Tare departed for duck and was followed by Rohit Sharma who scored just two runs.
But Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu did well to get their team back on the right track before Karthik departed after scoring 21 runs. Pollard and Rayudu added 48 runs which gave MI’s innings some sort of momentum. Rayudu scored 37 runs off 36 balls while Pollard kept dispatching the ball for fours.
Harbhajan tried to fancy his chances and smoked away three boundaries before he got out. Three quick wickets in last nine balls did restrict Mumbai Indians from getting to 150 + but Pollard gave couple of huge sixes which took them to 148 in their 20 overs.