Johannesburg: Chennai Super Kings defeated defending champions Mumbai Indians by six runs in a Group B encounter of the ongoing Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa. The result will not make any difference to the semifinals line-up as both the IPL teams were out of the running before the match even started.
In the first match of the day, Lions beat Yorkshire to become the second team from Group B after Sydney Sixers to qualify for the semis. The match between the two IPL giants went down to the last ball and in the end it was the penultimate over bowled by Ben Hilfenhaus that won the match for CSK.
Earlier in the day, CSK got off to a flying start after being put in to bat. Both Murali Vijay and Faf du Plessis took some early risk and the luck favored the openers as Chennai completed their fifth in the fifth over. Vijay after scoring a quick-fire 39 was cleaned up by Ojha in the ninth over. CSK were looking good to score past 200, with their score reading 100 for one at the half-way stage.
But, the 11th over bowled by Malinga changed the complexion of the game as he took two wickets in the over. CSK lost the plot from there as their run-rate kept going down, MS Dhoni did play some wonderful shots but did not foun any support from the other end. Malinga in his third over picked the crucial wickets of Dhoni (35) and Morkel to deliver a severe blow to Chennai. A last ball six from Ashwin took Chennai to 173.
Mumbai needed a good start but that didn’t happen. Hilfenhaus troubled both Sachin Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith with his swing and eventually got Sachin out with a ball that climbed up to him. Smith who was lucky to have been dropped lost his wicket to Morkel trying to hoic a delivery to the leg-side.
Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik than took the matters in their hand and a partnership of 64 runs took Mumbai close to the 100 run-mark. Karthik was particularly menacing on the spinners moving in the crease and hitting them to awkward place. Mumbai lost two quick wickets bringing Kieron Pollard to the crease with the team needing 78 runs from 41 deliveries. Pollard started his innings slowly and Karthik was the man who launched the attack.
He kept sweeping the Chennai spinners with success bringing the target in reach. The two batsmen hit three sixes of Ashwin in the 18th over. In the penultimate over Karthik hit the first two deliveries from Hilfenhaus for a couple and a six but the Aussie came back strongly to clean his stumps and bowl three dot balls after that.
Mumbai needed 19 runs off the final over and Dhoni opted for Jadeja ahead of Ashwin. Pollard hit the first ball for a six but got out the very next ball. Harbhajan Singh than hit a four but he too got out in pursuit of clearing the ropes and his team fell short by six runs in the end.
Brief Score:
Chennai Super Kings 173/8 (du Plessis 52, Malinga 5-32)
Mumbai Indians 167/7 (Karthik 74, Hilfenhaus 2-14)
By Indian Sports News Network