Sachin’s Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by 19 runs

Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by 19 runs in the first match of the second edition of the Indian Premier League at Cape Town in Newlands on Saturday.

Chasing a victory target of 166 runs, Chennai Super Kings managed 146/7 in their 20 overs.

The last wicket to fall was of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was clean bowled by a reverse swining full toss by Lasith Malinga. Dhoni hit 2 sixes and a four 36-run knock that came off 26 balls.

Subramaniam Badrinath (0) too fell to Malinga when he hit a delivery to long on for Dwayne Bravo to take the catch.

Jacob Oram (8) mistimed a hit up in the air for wicket keeper Pinal Shah to take the catch off Sanath Jayasuriya, who earlier dismissed Matthew Hayden who smashed to extra cover where Zaheer Khan dived to his right to take a superb catch. Hayden hit a six and 6 fours in his 44-run knock that came off 35 balls.

Dhoni’s team got off to a poor start as they lost Parthiv Patel on the second ball of their run chase when he edged a Lasith Malinga delivery to first slip for Sachin Tendulkar to take the catch.

Suresh Raina (8) was the next to fall when Rohan Raje took an excellent catch over his head just in front of the ropes at deep square leg.

Harbhajan Singh got his team the third breakthrough when he dismissed the dangerous Andrew Flintoff, who was looking to hit over mid-wicket, but edgeg it high up in the air for Harbhajan to take a simple catch in front of mid-off. Flintoff hit a six and two fours in his 24-run knock that came off 23 deliveries.

Earlier, Tendulkar hit an unbeaten 59 to set a 167-run target for Chennai Super Kings to win.

Tendulkar hit 7 fours in his knock that came off 49 deliveries and kept one end up even though Mumbai Indians kept losing wickets at regular intervals to score 165/7 in their 20 overs.

Manpreet Singh Gony was the most successful bowler taking 2 wickets in 2 overs.

Mumbai Indians were looking to steady the innings after losing Sanath Jayasuriya early but Gony thwarted their plans by first dismissing Shikhar Dhawan and then taking the wicket of Jean Paul Duminy.

Dhawan (22) edged the ball up in the air for Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to take the catch at mid-wicket, while Duminy (9) mistimed a pull straight back to Gony where he took the catch after a fumble.

Dwayne Bravo (5) was dismissed in the next over when he pulled to deep square leg for Matthew Hayden to take a good catch as the ball was dying on him.

Abhishek Nayar hit three sixes in one over by Andrew Flintoff before mistiming a slower ball from Jacob Oram to long-off for Thilan Thushara to take the catch. Nayar also hit 2 fours in his 35-run knock that came off 14 balls.

Harbhajan Singh (5) hit a six before he was run out in the same over by Oram.

Mumbai Indian’s last wicket when Zaheer hit to long off for Subramaniam Badrinath to take the catch.

Earlier, Tendulkar and Dhawan took Mumbai Indians to 64/1 in 10 overs.

This was after Thilan Thushara dismissed his countryman Sanath Jayasuriya to put Mumbai Indians at 40/1 in 5.5 overs.

Chennai Super Kings got the early breakthrough when Jayasuriya flicked to mid-wicket for Matthew Hayden to take a low catch. Jayasuriya hit 5 fours in his 26-run knock that came off 20 balls.

Jayasuriya’s dismissal came as a huge relief for Hayden as he had dropped Tendular at first slip in the previous over.

Earlier, the first match of IPL2 began after Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first in overcast conditions and on a wicket that had spongy bounce.

Credits: TimesofIndia