Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by 9 runs

Defending a 149-run target, Mumbai Indians beat the Chennai Super Kings by 9 runs in their IPL match at Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.

Mumbai were defending a low total but Munaf Patel stopped a strong Chennai batting line-up with 3/29 as the visitors notched up a nine-run win.

Chennai Super Kings lost their top order cheaply. The Super Kings suffered an early blow when Munaf Patel scalped Vijay (5), who while attempting a leg
glance, missed the ball completely and was bowled.

Then, Mitchell Johnson got the all-important wicket of Suresh Raina (10) when the southpaw was caught at point by Mumbai Indians skipper Ricky Ponting.

Soon after, Harbhajan Singh joined the party when his slower delivery found the better of Michael Hussey’s stumps, thereby ending the Australian’s 23-ball 20 knock.

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha then picked up the wickets of Dwayne Bravo (10) and Subramaniam Badrinath (16) in quick succession to rattle the Chennai run chase.

Bravo, who had a decent time with the ball for Chennai, knicked a flighted delivery that was caught by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.

Badrinath, on the other hand, was caught plumb by Ojha after the Chennai batsman put up a fighting effort to compensate the Super Kings’ early wickets falling fiasco.

Ravindra Jadeja was next in line to be dismissed when Munaf got the southpaw to get a mean inside edge that ended up on his stumps. Jadeja (16) put up an important 31-run partnership with skipper MS Dhoni for the sixth wicket.

Earlier, Kieron Pollard (57) hit a timely unbeaten half-century to lead Mumbai Indians to a respectable 148 for six.

Mumbai were struggling at 59 for four in the ninth over when Pollard came to the crease and the West Indian bailed his side out of troubled waters with his 38-ball knock.

Pollard’s innings was studded with nine boundaries including five sixes and he single-handedly brought his side back in the match even as Karthik contributed 37 runs.

Mumbai scored 52 runs in the last five overs as Pollard and Harbhajan Singh shared an unbeaten 65-run stand for the seventh wicket. Harbhajan scored a run-a-ball 21.

Dwayne Bravo (2/44) scalped two batsman while four other Chennai bowlers took a wicket each.

Mumbai lost both the openers inside the first 20 balls with Sachin Tendulkar getting a first ball duck in the fifth ball of the first over and skipper Ricky Ponting becoming victim of IPL debutant Ankit Rajpoot.

In came Pollard and he smashed Bravo to two consecutive boundaries. Despite losing wickets intermittently, Mumbai were managing a decent run-rate of seven. 

Brief scores
Mumbai Indians 148 for 6 (Pollard 57*, Karthik 37, Bravo 2-44)
Chennai Super Kings 139 for 9 (Dhoni 51, Patel 3-29, Ojha 2-16, Harbhajan Singh 2-31)
Result Mumbai Indians won by 9 runs
Points Mumbai Indians 2, Chennai Super Kings 0
MOM Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians)