New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings booked their berth in the finals of Indian Premier league Season 6 as they defeated the Mumbai Indians by 48 runs at the Feroze Shah Kotla Stadium on Tuesday. Ravindra Jadeja dismantled the top-order of Mumbai Indians as he got the wickets of Dwayne Smith, Keiron Pollard and Dinesh Karthik which allowed CSK to sneak through their batting line-up.
Earlier it was stunning batting performance by Suresh Raina and Mike Hussey which gave CSK an upper-hand in this qualifier. Raina went onto score 82 runs off just 42 balls whereas Hussey smashed 86 runs off just 58 balls. Hussey was awarded man-of-the-match for his brilliant innings which steered CSK to post a total of 192 runs on the board.
Mumbai Indians started off well as Dwayne Smith was timing the ball exquisitely well along with some smashing strokes which gave MS Dhoni a tough time. Smith didn’t allow any bowler to settle down as he kept hitting them for boundaries and he reached his fifty of just 21 balls. He departed after scoring 68 balls off just 28 balls and was undone by Jadeja.
Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma threw away their wickets as they came under pressure as the runs had started coming hard. Karthik departed after scoring 11 runs off 18 balls whereas Sharma got out after scoring 8 runs off just 15 balls. Keiron Pollard was looking to turn the tables as he hit couple of sixes but then Jadeja came into action again and sent Pollard back to the dug-out.
Thereafter, Dwayne Bravo bamboozled the tail-enders and ended up picking three wickets in his three overs. He ended up with the figures of 3/9 whereas Jadeja finished off with the figures of 3/31. Mohit Sharma picked up a couple of wickets in his last over and ended up with the figures of 2/32 after his four overs.
Earlier, it was some swashbuckling knocks of Mike Hussey and Suresh Raina which made the world of difference in this match. They added 140 runs for the third-wicket which didn’t allow the likes of Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson to penetrate their batting.
Spin-twins of Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha were smashed for 46 runs in the six overs that they bowled amongst them. Malinga and Johnson ended up giving 85 runs in the eight overs that they bowled.
Raina was absolutely magnificent in his knock of 82 runs which was decorated with five fours and five sixes. On the other hand, it was Hussey who anchored the innings of CSK as he went onto score 86 runs which was studded with 10 fours and two sixes.
The duo added 98 runs in the last eight overs which helped them in posting a daunting target. They ended up scoring 192 runs in their 20 overs which also had some contribution from Murali Vijay, who scored 23 runs and was dismissed by Pollard.