Chennai Super Kings defeated defending champions Mumbai Indians by six runs in a high-scoring Group B encounter of the ongoing Champions League Twenty20. Before the match started it was clear that both these teams will not feature in the semifinals and the match was played to restore some lost pride.

Amazingly IPL tams have had a tough time in this tournament, this was the second match won by an IPL team and both the victories have come against the fellow IPL sides.

CSK batted first and scored a healthy 173, in reply, Mumbai Indians got off to a bad start, but some brilliant batting in the latter half of the innings took the match into the last over.

Let’s have a look at some of the hits and flops from both innings:

Chennai Super Kings:

Hits:

Faf du Plessis: He was brilliant in the last match and continued in the same manner in this innings. He took the attack to the Mumbai Indians bowlers and hit them to all parts of the ground. His innings of 52 included six boundaries and a six.

MS Dhoni: Dhoni was the only man in the CSK middle-order to have a substantial score against his name. He came when his team lost two wickets in one over and took matters in control. He played some brilliant shots and was very aggressive with his stroke-play. Dhoni scored 35 runs of just 19 deliveries.

Ben Hilfenhaus: He was absolutely brilliant in this match and was awarded man of the match award for his outstanding performance. Hilfenhaus troubled the Mumbai openers and got the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in his first spell. He bowled the decisive penultimate over and conceded only eight runs. He ended with figures of 2-14.

Flops:

R Ashwin: He failed against the Lions in the previous match and was ordinary in this match as well. Dhoni saved Ashwin for the death overs but the off-spinner was the biggest disappointment of the night. He bowled far too shot and was hit for three sixes in his third over. He gave away 44 runs in the three overs he bowled.

Ravindra Jadeja: He failed with both bat and ball in this match. Jadeja did defend the 19 runs that Mumbai needed to get in the final over but it was because of some superb fielding that Chennai won and not because of Jadeja’s bowling. He went for 47 runs in his four overs.

Mumbai Indians:

Dinesh Karthik: He played the innings of the match. Karthik started a bit slowly but picked up against the Chennai spinners. He hit Jadeja for two sixes to get his innings going. It was looking that Karthik will run away with the match with the way he was batting. He scored 74 runs of just 45 deliveries, hitting four fours and six sixes.   

Lasith Malinga: CSK were well on their way to score a mammoth total and it was Malinga who stopped them go past the 200 run mark. He was expensive in his first over but came back brilliantly to finish with the figures of 5-32.

Kieron Pollard: Mumbai needed 78 runs from 41 deliveries when Pollard went into bat. He started slowly scoring only eight runs in the first ten deliveries that he faced, in the next seven he scored 23 runs. Pollard hit the first ball of the final over over the ropes and it was looking as if he will win the match for Mumbai, but he succumbed to a brilliant catch from Raina.

Flops:

Harbhajan Singh: The Mumbai Indians captain had a bad day in the field. He bowled only two overs and conceded 17 runs. With the bat, he wasted three deliveries in the penultimate over and that proved costly in the end.   

Sachin Tendulkar: He came into the tournament after a long break but has failed to play any good innings. Sachin looked out of touch and tried to force the issue. He looked uncomfortable in all the nine deliveries that he faced. He could only score two runs before looping a catch towards backward-point.