MI beat two-time champions CSK by 23 runs to win IPl first time Chennai Super Kings would rue having R Ashwin and not Suresh Raina at first slip on the second ball of the 12th over of the match. It cost them a third Indian Premier league title and gave Mumbai Indians their first here at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Ravindra Jadeja was bowling and Kieron Pollard was batting on six and Mumbai were in a delirious condition with 65 for 4 in 11.1 overs. The batsman nicked that ball but Ashwin couldn’t hold on to a difficult catch. CSK captain MS Dhoni replaced Raina with Ashwin on the next ball but it was one too late. Pollard went on to score an unbeaten 60, Mumbai reached 148 and won the game by 23 runs.
149 at the innings break might have looked gettable for Chennai but their start couldn’t have been worse as they ran into a fiery duo of lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson. Malinga yorked orange cap holder Michael Hussey (he finished with 733 runs in the tournament) on the fourth ball of the innings and then bowled the next ball a bouncer to get rid of the dangerous Raina, who played it straight into the hands of Dwayne Smith at backward square leg. The score read two for two and Chennai were under pressure with their top batsmen in the hut.
Subramaniam Badrinath survived the hat-trick ball but went in the very next over to Johnson. And Mumbai kept up the pressure on Chennai dismissing Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Murali Vijay and Albie Morkel to have one hand on the trophy.
Dhoni was the only one between them and title then but it became a case of too much for the CSK skipper. When he came to bat, the team score was 36 for 5 but by the time the last over was to be bowled, CSK required 42. With his 63 from 45 balls with three fours and five sixes, he could only make the loss a little less painful.
In the IPl now, CSK have been a part of five finals with two wins and three losses. They won the title in 2010 and 2011 and ended runners-up in 2008, 2012 and 2013.
As a result of Sunday’s victory, the final of IPl 2014 would be played in Mumbai. Earlier, Pollard came at a time when things were difficult for his team, they were 52 for 4 in 9.3 overs and bowers were in between a good spell. But he stood up to the challenge. A 32-ball 60 meant that the score reached 148. He had thrilled a packed house, which by the middle of his innings was chanting ‘Pollard, Pollard’.
His very first ball was a pitched up delivery by Chris Morris but was driven straight down the ground to suggest his form. He took on Ashwin to heave one from the off-spinner over long on to register his first six in the 13th over. Though he was frustrated at not getting the strike as the Mumbai batsmen fell in front of him in the last two overs, he was on strike for only three deliveries but hit 13 from them, it included two sixes on the final two balls, one straight towards the sight screen while final ball from Dwayne Bravo was put away over long on to get Mumbai to a fighting total.
Before that, it wasn’t the most auspicious of starts for Mumbai. They lost explosive opener Dwayne Smith on the fourth ball, lbw by Mohit Sharma — one that came in and caught the batsman plumb in front — and just two balls later the other opener Aditya Tare, bowled by Morne Morkel, the score read 8/2.
Captain Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik made a futile exercise of resurrection as Sharma gave Morkel a return catch in the fourth over as the two-time IPl finalists reeled at 16 for 3. Then, to put some sanity into the innings Ambati Rayudu was sent ahead of Pollard.
As a result, 36 runs came from the next six overs when Karthik got out, played on to Chris Morris, another example of the slowness of the pitch. That brought Pollard onto the crease and if Mumbai were to have a chance, it was going to be him.
But it was a disciplined Chennai bowling which kept a tight leash on the Mumbai scoring with Mohit, who had figures of 1 for 26 in his four overs, and Morkel, who had two for 12 in his three.
Purple cap holder Dwayne Bravo, with his 32 scalps in the season, was once again their most successful bowler with four for 42 in his four overs. First he got rid of a settled Rayudu followed by Harbhajan, and in his final over bowled a line just outside off stump as Johnson and Malinga edged one to the wicket-keeper Dhoni before Pollard hit him for two sixes on the final two balls.
Brief Scores
MI: 148/9 (Kieron Pollard 60 no, Dwayne Bravo 4/42) beat CSK: 125/9 (MS Dhoni 63 no, Mitchell Johnson 2/19, lasith Malinga 2/22) by 23 runs.