The Mumbai Indians spent on Friday evening on the beach at Port Elizabeth, soaking in the breathtaking view. The fresh seaside air should have helped them get over the disappointment in the wake of the heartbreaking loss at the hands of the Rajasthan Royals.
Unfortunately, it didn’t help much as they went down to the Chennai Super Kings the next day, all but ensuring that their IPL II journey ends short of the semifinals. The Chennai Super Kings, on the other hand, is now more or less certain of making it to the semifinals. After their close loss to Bangalore the Chennai team needed to win to spare themselves last moment jitters and calculations. Chasing 148 they didn’t look in control in the first 10 overs as the Mumbai Indians kept them in check. They managed to keep Matthew Hayden shackled and also picked up a couple of wickets. But things changed after the strategic break when Dhoni stepped in and the duo took the team home rather comfortably in the end.
As for Mumbai, they failed to put up as many runs as they would have liked, in the do-or-die match. The move to bring Jayasuriya back to the top worked as the left-hander made a quick-fire 30, but Dwayne Bravo again perished in unfamiliar territory. Duminy needed to bat through the innings and he did that again to perfection. But a cracking innings was missing from the other end.
{{/usCountry}}As for Mumbai, they failed to put up as many runs as they would have liked, in the do-or-die match. The move to bring Jayasuriya back to the top worked as the left-hander made a quick-fire 30, but Dwayne Bravo again perished in unfamiliar territory. Duminy needed to bat through the innings and he did that again to perfection. But a cracking innings was missing from the other end.
{{/usCountry}}Mumbai Indians
S Jayasuriya c Raina b Tyagi 30 (17b, 3x4, 2x6), D Bravo b Morkel 5 (8b, 1x4), JP Duminy run out 62 (54b, 4x4, 2x6), S Tendulkar c Balaji b Raina 11 (14b), A Nayar not out 33 (27b, 1x4, 2x6), Harbhajan Singh run out 1 (1b);
Extras (lb 3, w 1, nb 1) 5;
Total (5 wickets) 147; Fall of wkts: 1-7, 2-49, 3-74, 4-139, 5-147;
Bowling: A Morkel 4- 0-31-1, S Tyagi 3-0-29-1, M Muralitharan 4-0-19-0, S Raina 4-0-22-1, S Jakati 3-0-26-0, L Balaji 2-0-17-0.
Chennai Super Kings
P Patel lbw b Malinga 0 (1b), M Hayden not out 60 (57b, 4x4, 1x6), S Raina c & b Bravo 20 (12b, 2x4, 2x6), S Badrinath c Takawale b Kulkarni 22 (23b, 2x4, 1x6), MS Dhoni not out 23 (22b, 2x4);
Extras (lb 16, w 10) 26; Total (3 wkts; 19.1 overs) 151;
Fall of wkts: 1-0, 2-24, 3-64;
Bowling: L Malinga 4-0-19-1, D Kulkarni 4-0-45-1, D Bravo 3.1-0-19-1, Harbhajan 3-0-22-0, JP Duminy 2-0-9-0, C Nanda 3-0-21-0.