A resurgent Mumbai Indians dished out an authoritative performance to defeat their nemeses Chennai Super Kings and storm into the final of the IPL in thumping fashion here on Tuesday.
Playing against a rival who have had their measure in the business end of the tournament on four out of five occasions, the Mumbai Indians came out all guns blazing with the bat before making an impression with ball too for a superb 25-run win in the Qualifier 1 at the Wankhede Stadium.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, the Mumbai Indians went about their job in a very professional manner to rake up a very competitive 187/6. Openers Lendl Simmons (65 runs, 51 balls) and Parthiv Patel (35) laid the foundation for a strong total before Keiron Pollard produced a typically brutal assault to floor the Super Kings.
Chennai needed a strong start but a poor decision by umpire Richard Illingworth to rule Dwayne Smith leg before to Lasith Malinga, when the ball was comfortably missing the leg stump, set them back. Mumbai then picked up wickets to choke the flow of runs as CSK were bowled out for 162 in 19 overs.
With the occasion being a big one, both Simmons and Parthiv took time to settle down but once they got their eye in, they battered the Super Kings’ attack which simply couldn’t find a way past them until the midway stage of the innings.Simmons kick-started the surge by smashing R Ashwin for two sixes in the fifth over after which runs kept coming at a fast clip as Parthiv too joined the big hitting. With skipper MS Dhoni not trying anything different, the Super Kings started to misfield as well, with the pressure of playing in front of a partisan crowd evident.
The breakthrough finally arrived in the 11th over when Orange Cap holder Dwayne Bravo dismissed Parthiv for a well made 35. Simmons departed after notching up his fifth half-century of this IPL in the 14th over but with Pollard in his elements, CSK were on the backfoot again. Towards the end of the innings, the Super Kings looked like restricting the Mumbai Indians to a total around 170 but their ploy to bowl wide around the off stump backfired with most being adjudged extras.
Chasing a daunting target at a stadium where they managed to post their first win against Mumbai Indians only last year, the Super Kings needed someone to get a big knock, which never came.
Malinga set the ball rolling with that wicket of Smith for a duck in just the fourth ball of the innings. Michael Hussey (16), Suresh Raina (25) and Faf du Plessis then kept the run rate ticking along nicely as a keen fight seemed in store.
However, a brilliant 11th over by Harbhajan Singh changed the course of the match completely in favour of MI. The veteran first dismissed a well-set Raina via a caught and bowled off a superb delivery before knocking the stuffing out of CSK by sending back Dhoni off the very next ball. Dhoni went for sweep shot and missed it completely. Harbhajan and the entire MI team went up in appeal and umpire Illingorth raised his finger without any hesitation. With CSK tottering at 86/4, MI knew they had one foot in the final.
Du Plessis, Bravo, Jadeja and Ashwin then flung their bats around but the challenge appeared just too much as MI booked their ticket to Kolkata.
