Chennai: A brilliant comeback from Chennai Super Kings ensured they successfully snapped Mumbai Indians’ five match winning streak. The Super Kings brought the high flying Mumbai outfit to their knees with a 24 run win. It was all going to script for the table-toppers - Sachin Tendulkar was playing like a dream with Saurabh Tiwary at the other end. But what the Super Kings couldn’t do, the Chennai weather somehow managed - it was hot and Tendulkar was visibly feeling the heat. A dehydrated Tendulkar was forced to retire hurt after the 9th over with his team comfortably placed at 62/1.
A terrific comeback from Chennai and six wickets later (Rayudu, Bravo, Tiwary, Pollard, Sathish, McLaren), the MI skipper returned to bat with the score reading 89/6. What happened in those six overs the Mumbai side will never be able to dissect. But it was evident that Sachin was ill even after her returned and it showed as he perished soon, adding just seven runs to his initial score.
Some inept batting combined with tight Super Kings bowling ensured that CSK notched their third consecutive victory on the trot. The much famed Mumbai batting line-up simply disintegrated thanks to some restrictive bowling from R Ashwin (2/22) and Thilan Thushara (2/16).
With the Super Kings’ batting coming good, it was no surprise to see MS Dhoni electing to bat first after winning the toss. Murali Vijay and Matthew Hayden began proceedings with typical élan, but it was the Mumbai Indians who drew first blood. Vijay chopped a Harbhajan delivery onto his stumps as CSK were put on the back foot immediately.
Hayden, on the other hand, looked comfortable without looking devastating, as Suresh Raina took over the quick-scoring duties.
Raina’s aggression peaked when he smashed Dwayne Bravo over mid-wicket for a huge six. Sadly for the home fans, though, Bravo came back to snap up the CSK youngster’s wicket.
Pressure to set a competitive target was rising when captain MS Dhoni entered and his calmness helped the Super Kings get things back in order. Scoring was still proving to be difficult, courtesy some fine middle-overs bowling from Harbhajan and co.
But it was Kieron Pollard’s second over that did all the damage, grabbing the wickets of Dhoni 31(18) and Matthew Hayden 35 (31) off consecutive balls. Tottering at 119/4, CSK managed to set a target of 165, thanks to some innovative batting from S Badrinath 30 (22).
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