Mumbai: Mumbai Indians stunned Chennai Super Kings by beating them with a huge margin of 60 runs at Wankhede here on Sunday. Some brilliant bowling from the trio of Mitchell Johnson, Lasith Malinga and Pragyan Ojha snatched this match from Chennai who kept losing their wickets almost in every over and were bundled out for 79.
Earlier it was some brilliant batting of Harbhajan Singh and Rohit Sharma who scored 25 and 34 runs respectively to help Mumbai Indians reach a total of 139 runs.
Chennai Super kings had a terrible start as Mitchell Johnson gave three early blows in his second over to give Mumbai Indians an upper hand. With Murli Vijay, Suresh Raina and S Badrinath back in to the dug-out in first three overs pushed Chennai on to the back-foot. Debutant P Suyal gave Chennai another blow when he scalped the crucial wicket of Dwayne bravo and CSK were reduced to 21/4 in first five overs.
Harbhajan Singh came into the party as he picked up the wicket of R Ashwin in the seventh over and kept bowling those tight overs to maintain the pressure on CSK.
Mike Hussey, who was dropped for three times in the first over of the innings by Keiron Pollard, was finally dismissed for 22 runs by Pragyan Ojha to reduce CSK to 40/6.
Ojha struck back in his second over and got the big wicket of MS Dhoni who departed after scoring 10 run.
Malinga came back with those swinging yorkers to pick up wickets of Mohit Sharma and Chris Morris in the 13th over and to reduce CSK to 55/9. Ojha struck in the sixteenth over to seal the victory for Mumbai Indians by 60 runs. Ravindra Jadeja contributed 20 runs to the team's total.
Earlier in the match, Mumbai Indians had a slow start as Dwayne Smith and Sachin Tendulkar added just 32 runs in six overs. But Tendulkar go out soon to Jadeja who got him leg before wicket and he was followed by Smith in the next over, reducing MI to 2/43 in eighth over. Mumbai lost all the momentum as they lost the wicket of Dinesh Karthik and Keiron Pollard which brought their batting into deep trouble. They also lost the wicket of Ambati Rayudu in the 16th over who contributed 10 runs to the total.
But Rohit Sharma did well and kept his nerves intact and knitted a brilliant partnership of 57 runs for the sixth wicket and took Mumbai to a comfortable total of 139 in their 20 overs. Rohit Sharma scored 39 runs off 30 balls and Harbhajan Singh scored a quick-fire 25 off just 11 balls.
By ISN