Chennai Ascends as Mumbai Tumbles

Chennai defended a moderate total with a peachy resolve, and beat Mumbai  by 24 runs on a sluggish Chepauk pitch. After winning a toss MSD opted to bat first and they managed to score 165 for four in 20 overs. Then the home bowlers restricted potent Mumbai’s line up to 141 for nine.

Mumbai was sailing smoothly till Sachin got retire hurt due to dehydration after first strategic time-out when he was batting on 38. The score line was 62-1 in 9 overs. On slow pitch the ball was not coming on to the bat off the surface and stroke-making was difficult. In the absence of Murali, Chennai spinners Ashwin and Jakati varied their pace and trajectory and controlled the extent of turn with clever use of the crease and applied breaks on big-hitting Mumbai batters throughout the inning.

With a soaring run rate and without Sachin, rest of Mumbai batsmen including Tiwary, Pollard and Bravo crumbled to the mounting pressure. Mumbai were down to 89-7 in 14.2 overs when Sachin took guard for the second time. But with asking rate over 15 runs even he could not rescue Mumbai.  Chennai players were athletic on field and held on to catches in the deep.

Earlier, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh clinched in-form Murali Vijay early in inning and did not allow Chennai a flying start. Except Abu Nechim who was included in the side in place of injured Zaheer Khan Mumbai bowlers were disciplined with their line and length. But at one point it looked Chennai will post a score well above 180 before Pollard’s double blow. In 14^th over, he got rid of Hayden (35 in 31) and dangerous MSD (31 in 18) on consecutive deliveries.

In the end Badrinath struck 22 balls 30 and helped Chennai to post a respectable score which proved more than enough. Suresh Raina who scored 23 runs and bowled 2.3 overs conceding 12 runs and took 1 wicket was awarded Man of the match.

The resurgent Super Kings now has 10 points from 10 games Mumbai has 14 from nine. Last night Super Kings gambled by resting off-spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan and fielding Thushara. The fitness concerns of Albie Morkel forced the host to make the change. And this proved to be a winning combination for them. With this win Chennai now stands a good chance of making it to semis.

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