IPL: Mumbai Beat Chennai In A Thrilling Last Ball Finish

Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings in a thrilling last ball finish at the Wankhede stadium on Sunday. CSK seemed to have had two point in their pockets when 14 runs were needed off the last three balls. However, the MI's latest acquisition Dwayne Smith had other ideas, smashing his way to an improbable victory.

Harbhajan won the toss and put the opposition in on a wicket who's behaviour has been fickle this season. Faf Du Plessis who has been CSK's best batsman this year, kept Mike Hussey out of the side. He departed early, but the comeback man Murali Vijay looked to be in fine touch. His innings of 41 was laced with crisp drives and lofted hits over the mid wicket. Substantial contributions from the trio of Raina, Bravo and Dhoni meant that Chennai would set a huge target. A fine last over by Malinga conceding just four runs meant DD ended with a score of 173. The curly haired Sri Lankan and RP Singh were the pick of the bowlers as they got 3 wickets each.

Mumbai had an inauspicious start to their innings as Franklin played out a maiden over by Hilfenhaus and then lost his wicket to the same bowler in his next over. Tendulkar on the other hand looked in fine touch, and was going for his shots. Rohit Sharma too joined him in the fun, and the two set about whittling the target down, hard and fast. Tendulkar got out to one of the catches of the tournament for a high quality 74 off 44 balls. His dismissal led to a collapse, and the 40 needed off 31 balls soon became 25 in two overs. A big hit from Dwayne Smith off the second last ball of the penultimate over meant 16 were required off the last over. The ever reliable Hilfenhaus came in to bowl the final over. Smith got a single off the first ball, Malinga's stumps got castled off the second, and RP Singh managed a single of the third. Smith slogged the next three near yorkers for 6,4,4 to score the 14 runs needed. MI once again dodged a bullet, and this time they had a new player to thank for it. Seems like they won't be missing Kieron Pollard much.