Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar. The night belonged to the little genius as he guided the Mumbai Indians to victory over the visiting Chennai Super Kings at the Brabourne here today.
After Sachin’s master class against the Kolkata Knight Riders, it was the turn of the Super Kings to have the privilege of seeing another great knock from the Master. Sachin played around his partners and his chanceless innings of 72 had eight boundaries and a solitary six. A lot has been written about Sachin’s batting over time and journalists all over the world would repeat all the superlatives and adjectives to describe his innings tonight.
Ironically, Sachin couldn’t see the team home. A tired Sachin played an uncharacteristic pull to get out with Mumbai Indians needing a mere nine to win. Dwayne Bravo then completed the formalities hitting a six off Lakshmipathy Balaji to reach the target of 181 with one over to spare.
Shikhar Dhawan came out with Sachin Tendulkar as if he wanted to end the match within 15 overs. But after scoring a quick-fire 50, which included two towering sixes off Balaji, Dhawan (56) departed looking to repeat his lofty hitting once too often.
Thissara Perrera’s debut IPL match for CSK was one he would wish to forget soon. The match, which could have gone either way till then, turned on its head in the 16th over, with Kieron Pollard and Sachin Tendulkar milking Perrera for 19 runs.
Pollard also got the opportunity to show Mumbai why so much was spent to buy him, when he casually flicked a Muralidaran ball for six over long-on. But next ball he also showed his inexperience getting out by chopping the doosra onto his stumps.
Earlier, Chennai Super Kings who had their talismanic captain, MS Dhoni, back at the helm got off to a good start. The innings truly took off in the second over when Matthew Hayden hit Zaheer Khan for four boundaries, setting the stage for a huge score. But Haydos didn’t stay long enough, getting trapped leg before to Harbhajan in the fourth over. Sadly, the Mumbai crowd got to see the Mongoose bat only for two deliveries. Parthiv followed his opening partner soon and it looked as if the Mumbai Indians were getting the better off the visiting Super Kings.
But Suresh Raina, relieved of the pressures of captaincy, went after the bowling from the start, pulling and cutting with ease. He was particularly hard on Bravo whom he hit for two huge sixes. S Badrinath, at the other end, was also gathering runs and together the duo shared a 142-run partnership, the second highest stand in IPL. Raina reached his fifty of 32 balls, while Badri got to his half-century off 41 balls.
With this win, Mumbai Indians will go to the top of the points table, and CSK will continue to languish in the middle.
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