A well played 45 runs from Faf du Plessis wasn’t enough to prevent the Mumbai Indians from beating Chennai Super Kings in a play-off on Tuesday and thereby booking their place in the final of the IPL.
MI won the first play-off game by 25 runs after posting 187-6, before striking at regular intervals, eventually dismissing CSK for 162 in the penultimate over of the innings.
It will be Mumbai Indians’ third final after they won the tournament back in 2013.
After opting to bat first on a flat batting surface at the Wankhede Stadium, the Mumbai Indians openers gave their team a fantastic platform. Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel added 90 runs batting past the halfway stage.
Simmons consolidated after the initial burst and brought up his half-century in the 10th over, needing 39 balls to get to the milestone. Just past the halfway mark, CSK struck for the first time when Dwayne Bravo had Parthiv Patel caught at long-on.
The left-hander made 35 from 25 balls and struck four boundaries and a six. Simmons perished in the 14th over when threw his bat at a wide delivery from Ravindra Jadeja, but Pawan Negi ran in from the cover boundary and took a sharp catch.
After the start they had, MI looked good to post a total in excess of 200. But two quiet overs – the 16th over bowled by Bravo and the 17th over bowled by Ashish Nehra – which fetched only six runs meant the hosts lost a bit of momentum towards the end.
But Kieron Pollard exploded in the final stretch to ensure MI finished their innings on a high. He hit one four and five sixes, racing to 41 from 17 balls, before he was dismissed with two balls remaining.
After 46 runs were scored in the final three overs of the innings MI finished their 20 overs at a respectable 187-6.
Needing to score at more than nine runs an over, CSK were pushed on the backfoot in the very first over when Lasith Malinga trapped Dwayne Smith lbw without a run on the board.
Michael Hussey and Faf du Plessis put the innings back on track adding 46 runs before the former feathered a Vinay Kumar delivery to the wicket-keeper.
Du Plessis made 45, which included five fours and a six, before he didn’t connect an attempted hit over long on and holed out to Vinay Kumar at the boundary.
When a sharp piece of work on the field by Parthiv Patel ran out Dwayne Bravo (20 from 15 balls), MI had the match tightly in their grip.
Ravindra Jadeja (19 from 10 balls) and R Ashwin (23 from 12 balls) wielded their willow to good effect, but the task in front of them was just too big for them to accomplish.
CSK were bowled out for the first time in the season when Ashish Nehra holed out to Lendl Simmons of the final delivery of the 19th over.
Photo: Pal Pillai/SPORTZPICS/IPL/BCCI
