JOIN USHaving stumbled at the final hurdle two years back in South Africa, the Challengers will take on defending champions Chennai Super Kings at the same venue on Saturday, hoping to lay their hands on the coveted IPL trophy for the first time.
Not for the first time this season, Chris Gayle figured prominently in the Challengers’ victory, smashing a quite brilliant 89 (47b, 9x4, 5x6) as the Bangalore outfit posted an intimidating 185 for four after being put in by Tendulkar.
Deadly accuracy
Not quite finished for the evening, Gayle bowled his off-spinners with deadly accuracy, conceding just 11 runs from his three overs and playing a fantastic support role to the left-arm spinning duo of skipper Daniel Vettori and Chennai lad Syed Mohammad.
Unsurprisingly, the Jamaican was named the man of the match, an astonishing sixth such award this season in just 11 games.
Between them, Vettori (3/19) and Mohammad (2/25) took five for 44 in eight overs, totally stymying the Indians’ abortive chase, which came to an end at 142 for eight.
For a brief while, with another vintage display, Tendulkar threatened to single-handedly make a match of it, but once he was deceived in the air and off the pitch by Mohammad, the Indians floundered, losing their heads, and wickets in a heap to crash out of the competition.
Run riot
The first indication that Gayle was in the crash-bang mood came in the game’s first over, when he latched on to Abu Nechim Ahmed and smashed him for three fours and a six.
In all, 27 came off that over; the Challengers had fired the first salvo, and the Indians simply had no counter.
The young Mayank Agarwal almost matched Gayle stroke for stroke during an exhilarating opening stand of 113 that came off just 10.4 overs. With the exception of Lasith Malinga and Munaf Patel, all the other Mumbai Indians came under the cosh, Gayle’s commanding presence turbo-charging the Challengers to a massive, and eventually match-winning, total.