Mumbai Indians 139 for 5 (Rohit Sharma 39*, Jadeja 3-29) beat Chennai Super Kings 79 (Ojha 3-11, Johnson 3-27) by 60 runs
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It was as if the Chennai Super Kings batsmen wanted to beat the evening
crowds in the Mumbai local trains. So as opposed to chasing the
below-par 140 in a hurry, they kept throwing away their wickets away,
folding for the lowest total this IPL and losing by 60 runs to end their
seven-match winning streak.
No matter how much credit you give to Mumbai Indians' bowling - one of
the more watchable acts of the IPL - it was a surreal case of mediocrity
manufacturing excitement in the first few overs of the chase. In the
first over of the chase, Mitchell Johnson kept bowling short and wide,
Michael Hussey kept cutting it to Kieron Pollard at point, and Pollard
kept dropping. The third successive one of those cut Pollard's nose, and
he walked off the field even as the Wankhede Stadium rubbed its
collective eyes.
You could argue Johnson came back with a superb second over, but that
began with a loose shot from M Vijay, who dragged a wide length ball on.
Suresh Raina played across one, and got a leading edge to Pollard at
point. This time Pollard dived in front and half-redeemed himself. As is
the rule with Super Kings, they sent S Badrinath to face the crisis,
and he nearly edged the hat-trick ball. Soon, Johnson beat his other
edge with a left-arm bowlers' outswinger, and was denied a triple-wicket
maiden only by Dwayne Bravo.
And Wankhede was yet to finish rubbing its eyes. In the next over, Bravo
drove a shortish Pawan Suyal delivery off the back foot straight to
cover. At 18 for 4, MS Dhoni held himself and Ravindra Jadeja back, and
sent in R Ashwin, who soon fell to the veteran offspinner he has
usurped, Harbhajan Singh. In came Dhoni with the asking rate past eight
and only five wickets in hand.
Hussey regained his orange cap, but his innings was never fluent. Lasith
Malinga's over to him was striking as the bouncers did Hussey in with
both the slowness and then pace. Under immense pressure, Hussey looked
for release the moment Pragyan Ojha came on to bowl, and lofted him
straight to deep midwicket to make it 40 for 6 in 9.1 overs.
Too much was left for Dhoni to do, and he too holed out off Ojha.
Malinga ran through the rest, and Mumbai kept themselves in the top four
with the end of the league approaching. It shouldn't have been that
easy, though, after they managed about 50 fewer than the average
first-innings score in Mumbai this season. Once again, they were off to a
slow start, and five of their top six failed to score at more than a
run a ball.
The two who did, captain Rohit Sharma and Harbhajan, went on to bat
until the end. When they took it to the end, they got a loose last over
from Ben Laughlin and took 19 runs off it. It didn't seem the case then,
but the momentum had shifted.
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Sidharth Monga
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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