JP Duminy, selected for his first appearance for the Mumbai Indians, was never given a chance to show his ability as the Chennai Super Kings were beaten by eight wickets in Pune.

Duminy was brought in for Kieron Pollard to bring some stability to the middle order, after the West Indian was dropped, having scored 63 runs in five innings, with 28 as a top score. The defending champions had won one of their six matches.

But he was never needed as the Indians sneaked in with two balls to spare, chasing Chennai’s 169-5.

It was a well-measured innings, although Rohit Sharma (56) had to inject some urgency after Suryakumar Yadav (44) and Evin Lewis (47) had laboured their way to 128-2 after 16 overs.

That the Indians had such a target was due in no small measure to Mitchell McClenaghan, who struck twice in one over to send back the dangerous MS Dhoni for 26 and Dwayne Bravo (0) and put the brakes on a much-needed surge.

Earlier, 27 runs in the last two overs of the powerplay gave Chennai a solid base of 51 for the loss of Shane Watson (12) and they were still on track at 91-1 at the halfway stage.

Then Krunal Pandya dismissed the series’ leading run-scorer Ambati Rayudu for 46 (off 35 balls) to which McClenaghan added his valuable contribution.

Suresh Raina alone held the fort for Chennai, who came into this match at the top of the table with five wins from six matches, hitting an unbeaten 75 off 47 balls, including six fours and four sixes, which was never going to be enough.

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