LIVE TV
India
Recommended Stories
Smith hit a towering six over long-on in the fourth ball and reeled off two conseutive fours to snatch the win for the hosts in a match, in which fortunes fluctuated like a pendulum. Sachin Tendulkar (74) slammed his first half-century of the season and shared a 126-run stand with Rohit Sharma (60) to lay the foundation for the win but regular strikes brought Chennai back in the match. Chennai had put up a challenging 173 for eight after being invited to bat as their top and middle-order batsmen batted superbly with Murali Vijay top-scoring with his 41.
Mumbai were handsomely placed at 144 for one in the 16th over before Chennai stormed back in splendid style to reduce the home team to 159 for 8 with four balls left. The wicket of Tendulkar, who struck 11 fours and a six in his excellent innings, triggered the collapse as seven wickets fell for just 15 runs which almost put Mumbai on the brink of defeat. West Indian Smith pulled it around with his splendid, unbeaten 24 in 9 balls, that included 2 sixes and as many fours.
Vijay, a total flop this season with just 45 runs, finanlly found form as he tore into Patel in the his second over, slamming him for 24 runs. Vijay hooked Munaf when the bowler pitched it short for a six over square leg. He later smote the bowler for a lofted four and then two successive sixes over the mid-wicket region with utter disdain.
His belligerence helped the visitors race to 46 in five overs with Plessis playing second fiddle. A misunderstanding between them resulted in Plessis` run out as he was sent back by Vijay following a push to mid-on but was beaten by RP Singh`s direct hit. Chennai then lost Vijay to a piece of indiscreet shot-making. The opener tried to heave Singh and was bowled off the fourth ball after the end of power play. Harbhajan brought himself on into the attack soon after the fall of these two wickets in the space of 9 balls and restricted the run-scoring along with R P Singh.
Super Kings could add only 30 runs between the sixth and tenth overs to be 72 for 2 after ten. Raina ran quick singles with his partner Bravo during the 62-run partnership for the third wicket, and also struck a few lusty hits to pep up the scoring rate. But the left-handed batsman departed to a poor shot, slashing the first ball bowled by left-arm James Franklin to backward point where Singh took a splendid catch.
At the end of the 15th over the Super Kings were 123 for 3 before Dhoni took 15 runs off the next over from Peterson, that included a six over long on which struck the glass pane of the press enclosure and a four. Bravo carted Munaf for a huge straight-field six into the packed stands before losing his stump to a Malinga swinging Yorker in the 18th over. Dhoni was dismissed via a catch just inside the rope by Rohit Sharma off R P Singh in the penultimate over and Albie Morkel too fell to the left-arm pacer off the last ball of the same over.
