After losing their first four games in the Indian Premier league, Mumbai Indians seemed to be going out. But after Tuesday’s performance, where they beat Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai deserve their place in the final to be played at Eden Gardens on May 24. This will be Mumbai’s third IPl final after winning the title in 2013.
Put in to chase a huge 188 runs, Chennai Super Kings were undone first by the big hitting of lendl Simmons (65 from 51), Kieron Pollard (41 from 17) and then by the spin of Harbhajan Singh (2-26). In reply, CSK were bowled out for 161 runs thus losing by 25. Chennai Super Kings had the worst possible start with Dwayne Smith given out lbw off lasith Malinga in the first over. To add insult to injury, the ball seemed to be going comfortably down the leg side.
New man in, Faf du Plessis took Mitchell McClenaghan to the cleaners in the very first over smacking a six and a four after Michael Hussey had also hit him over the ropes. In the fourth over, Vinay Kumar had du Plessis playing a bad shot but lasith Malinga dropped him despite being in plenty of room to take it. However, it didn’t take long before Kumar picked his first with Hussey trying to slash the medium pacer but edging it back to Parthiv Patel. At 46/2, CSK looked to be in some sort of bother as Suresh Raina walked in.
Raina and du Plessis calmed things down but only produced one big over between them to Harbhajan Singh which produced 13 runs. After 10 overs, CSK matched Mumbai Indians’ score of 86 but were two wickets worse.
Offie Harbhajan then changed the complexion of the match in the 11th over to turn the game miraculously in Mumbai’s favour. Off the second delivery, he sent Raina back to the pavilion with the CSK player playing a loose shot to give an easy caught and bowled chance. On the next ball, MS Dhoni, playing his 200th T20 game, found himself going for a sweep and being given out lbw. With Harbhajan on a hat-trick, new man Dwayne Bravo calmly slotted the ball on the leg side. The spinner could have added Bravo to his list of wickets but for a drop by himself from the last delivery.
After being hit for a six and a four by Bravo, spinner Jagadesha Suchith sent Faf back with the pressure piling. Needing 78 runs from the final six overs and four wickets remaining, Bravo was run out thanks to brilliant fielding effort by Parthiv Patel to hit the stumps after an attempt failed on one end.
Despite matching MI stride for stride in runs, CSK kept losing wickets consistently to add pressure on themselves. Ravichandran Ashwin provided some hope but it came to naught. CSK started their bowling attack with the spin-pace combination of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ashish Nehra.The duo of lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel started off calmly before deciding to let loose.
In the tenth over, Simmons brought up his fifth fifty of the on-going IPl after 38 balls. Dhoni introduced Dwayne Bravo into the attack and that did the trick. Patel tried to go over the long-on boundary but as soon as he struck the ball, he knew he hadn’t hit it strongly enough thus allowing Jadeja’s catch to send him back. The first wicket partnership produced 90 runs for the Mumbai Indians.
Jadeja scalped the big fish - Simmons - in the 14th over as the opener was caught by Negi off Jadeja. The West Indian tried to continue the charge on the spin but Negi ran in from deep cover to bend low and bring a huge relief to his team. New batsman in, Kieron Pollard was the perfect replacement for Simmons. And he didn’t take long to settle down.
Rohit (19) and Hardik Pandya (1) fell in quick succession to give CSK bit of a momentum. While Bravo grabbed his second wicket on the night in dismissing Rohit, Nehra sent Pandya back with Jadeja taking both the catches. In the final over, Pollard hit an attempted yorker over the boundary line for a maximum despite Faf du Plessis’s diving attempt. CSK could have been in a worse situation but for Bravo’s 3-40.