Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by eight runs: IPL Match Recap and Analysis
Sachin Tendulkar’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820 Indians beat Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings by eight runs in the 25th match of the ongoing (Indian Premier League) IPL-4 at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
After winning the toss, Dhoni elected to field, a decision that proved fatal later in the innings as Rohit Sharma, who came down the batting order, pulled off a gem of an innings and shattered the hard work of the Chennai bowlers. The Super kings bowling
line-up had put on a good show earlier in the innings but Sharma put all that work to waste. Sharma played a brisk innings of 87 runs off just 48 deliveries, which left Dhoni and gang completely awestruck.
His innings included eight boundaries and five sixes. He was ultimately removed by Dough Bollinger on the second delivery of the last over of the innings as Sharma tried to smack a short delivery that ended straight into the hands of Michael Hussey at long-on.
Had it not been for the mammoth effort by Sharma, Mumbai would have been in deep trouble and the way things were going Tendulkar XI might have crashed before putting a total on the board worth fighting for.
Earlier in the day, Dhoni had Mumbai right where he wanted as Chennai clinched the first wicket on the first ball of the third over as opener Rajagopal Sathish perished while trying to pull a delivery which ended up in the hands of Srikkanth Anirudha. He
could not score a run after facing seven deliveries.
In the very next over it was Bollinger who silenced the Mumbai crowd by grabbing another wicket and this time it was the Mumbai skipper Sachin Tendulkar who was removed as he top-edged a short delivery straight towards the wicketkeeper but before Dhoni could
make a move, Michael Hussey out of nowhere pounced on the ball, grabbing a spectacular catch.
Chennai were on top as they had removed the most dangerous batsman in the world of cricket without letting him pile runs onto the board. Sachin went back to the pavilion after scoring five runs. It was surely a sorry site in the stadium as Sachin’s fans
could not believe what had happened. Later http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ambati-Rayudu-c1007 along with Sharma managed to halt the Chennai onslaught as both batsmen chose not to take too many risks.
However, in the 12th over Rayudu lost patience and went for a charge against spinner Suraj Randiv but he failed to make contact with the ball and was conveniently stumped by Dhoni. He walked back after scoring 27 runs off 29 deliveries.
It was time for the hard hitting Australian Andrew Symonds to walk in and the Mumbai crowd cheered in joy at the sight of a cricketing gladiator capable of changing the face of the game within a couple of deliveries by his massive hitting.
Together the two batsmen formed a sensible partnership. Symonds remained not-out after scoring 31 runs off 26 deliveries. His innings included one boundary and two sixes. Managing to post 164 runs at the end of their innings turned out to be a miracle for
Mumbai and now it was up to their bowlers to make a match out of it.
Chennai had a superb start to their innings and the way things went early in their innings a victory seemed eminent as Hussey and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Murali-Vijay-c78035 gave their side a decent start. Vijay lost his wicket after scoring 12 runs off nine deliveries as he edged Munaf
Patel’s delivery straight to Sharma at first slip.
In the next over Harbhajan Singh struck as Suresh Raina scooped a delivery right back at the bowler which was sharply held. Raina scored just five runs.
After the demise of the left-handed Raina, the incoming batsman, Subramaniam Badrinath, took it upon himself to hold off Mumbai. Seven runs later, Lasith Malinga struck by removing Hussey who ended up playing an uppish shot which was caught by Kieron Pollard.
After this wicket the Chennai demolition process initiated as none of the batsmen could stay on the wicket long enough to reach the target in front of them.
Badrinath could only watch in anguish as wickets kept on falling right in front of his eyes. He remained unbeaten on 71 runs off 48 deliveries. His innings included seven boundaries and two sixes. In the end Chennai could only score 156 runs.
This defeat will give Chennai a lot to think about and ponder over their mistakes against a team which splendidly grabbed a victory from a losing position.
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