JOIN USChennai too good for MI
Brendon McCullum smashed a belligerent unbeaten 71 after Mohit Sharma’s heroics with the ball to guide Chennai Super Kings to a comfortable seven-wicket win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League match here on Friday.
The win was Chennai’s third on the trot while Mumbai are yet to open their account in the tournament after having slumped to their third straight defeat.
Asked to bowl, Mohit (4/14) produced a fine death bowling display to help Chennai restrict the title holders to a modest 141 for seven.
Coming on to bowl the 19th over, Mohit picked up three wickets - Ambati Rayudu, dangerman Kieron Pollard (12) and Harbhajan Singh - to prevent a late burst from the Mumbai batsmen.
Apart from Mohit (4/14), Ben Hilfenhaus (2/39) picked up two wickets for the Chennai outfit.
Mumbai’s innings mainly revolved around captain Rohit Sharma and Correy Anderson. While Rohit made 50 off 41 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes, big-hitting Anderson scored 39 off 31 balls.
In fact, the 84-run third-wicket partnership between the duo was the highlight of Mumbai’s innings especially after they lost their openers for just 25 runs inside five overs.
But once the duo departed, their innings fell apart as Mumbai could manage just 33 runs off the last five overs for the loss of five wickets.
Chasing the target, Dwayne Smith (29) and McCullum got Chennai off to a flier with a 57-run opening stand off just 38 balls. After two quiet overs, Smith took Pragyan Ojha to the cleaners and clobbered the left-arm spinner for two sixes straight over his head to get Chennai going.
Smith, however, departed in search of one too many boundaries while Suresh Raina got out cheaply, stumped by CM Gautam off Harbhajan Singh (2/27) as Mumbai clawed back into the match with two quick wickets.
But McCullum and new man Faf du Plessis went about their business in style and stitched 50 runs for the third wicket to take Chennai closer.
While du Plessis played the anchor’s role, McCullum continued in the aggressive fashion and dispatched the bad deliveries for fours and sixes.