IPL 6: Match Review - Pollard too much power for Chennai Super Kings

An electrifying innings from Pollard, followed with a good bowling spell, sealed the game for Mumbai Indians against the steady Chennai Super Kings as they won by 8 runs. Pollard had a different role today as he walked in when Mumbai had completely lost momentum following the wicket of Dinesh Karthik.

Pollard came in the 9th over of the Mumbai Indians innings when the score was at 58/4. He had a steady start as Dhoni was constantly shuffling his bowlers. Chennai Super Kings’ bowlers did not keep the pressure on Pollard as they bowled too many loose deliveries and allowed him to settle down. Pollard smashed three consecutive fours of Laughlin in the 13th over that regained the momentum for Mumbai Indians. Subsequently, the ball was flying all over the park as Pollard and Harbhajan put on a magnificent 65 runs partnership for the 6 wicket, where Pollard was the dominating partner.

Chennai Super Kings bowlers dominated the greater part of the game as Nannes grabbed the wicket of Tendulkar for nought. The debutant fast bowler Rajpoot scalped his first IPL wicket as he got rid of Ponting for 6. Later, Chennai Super Kings kept chipping away with wickets as the Mumbai Indians’ batsman tried to play shots on a sluggish wicket, which did not offer too much turn for the spinners.

It was Pollard’s and Harbhajan’s salvaging partnership that opened the gate for Mumbai Indians as the duo looked in good rhythm. Pollard top-scored for Mumbai Indians with 57, while the second top-scorer was Dinesh Karthik, who scored 37 as the rest of the batsman failed to reach the double-figure mark, with the exception of Harbhajan Singh who scored a quickfire 21.

Mumbai Indians eventually finished their innings at 148 runs for the loss of 6 wickets, which didn’t look like par-score as the wicket remained good for batting.

Clearly, Chennai Super Kings did not have a good day in the field as they dropped a couple of important catches, which subsequently made the difference.

Chennai Super Kings’ reply was not promising as they lost the wicket of Murali Vijay (5) in the very second over of the innings. Suresh Raina, just as he looked in fine-touch, was caught by Ponting at backward point for 10. The entire burden shifted on Hussey as many desperately wanted him to play the whole 20 overs. However, Hussey lost his patience as he attempted to pull a full delivery of Harbhajan, and in the end was bowled for 20.

Bravo, who was promoted up the order to up the ante, was dismissed rather cheaply for 10. Chennai Super Kings kept losing wickets at regular intervals thereafter, and did not have one good partnership which would have helped them to inch closer towards the Mumbai Indians total.

Chennai Super Kings had skipper Dhoni at the center, despite wickets falling around him. He played a brilliant innings of 51 and kept the hopes alive till the last over of the match. When 12 runs were required of the last over, Dhoni tried to clobber the delivery of Munaf Patel over deep midwicket, but the tall Pollard took a sensational catch to win the game for Mumbai Indians.

Munaf Patel was among the wickets for Mumbai Indians as he grabbed three wickets for 29 runs, while the spinners Harbhajan Singh and Ojha picked couple of wickets each.

Chennai Super Kings play their next match against Kings XI Punjab on April 10, while Mumbai Indians play their next game against Delhi Daredevils on April 9.

The following is the scoreboard of the Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians match in the Indian Premier League here at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium Saturday.

Mumbai Indians

Ricky Ponting c Ashwin b Rajpoot 6

Sachin Tendulkar lbw b Nannes 0

Dinesh Karthik lbw b Bravo 37

Rohit Sharma c Dhoni b Bravo 8

Amibati Rayudu c Nannes b Laughlin 7

Kieron Pollard not out 57

Dwayne Smith c Bravo b Ashwin 3

Harbhajan Singh not out 21

Extras (lb 3, w 6) 9

Total (Six wickets in 20 overs) 148

Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Tendulkar, 0.5 overs), 2-17 (Ponting, 3.2), 3-41 (Sharma, 6.1), 4-59 (Karthik, 8.2), 5-75 (Rayudu, 10.3), 6-83 (Smith, 11.6)

Bowling

Dirk Nannes 4-0-18-1

Ankit Rajpoot 3-0-25-1

Dwyane Bravo 4-0-44-2

Ben Laughlin 3-0-25-1

Ravindra Jadeja 2-0-12-0

Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-21-1

Chennai Super Kings

Michael Hussey b Harbhajan Singh 20

Murali Vijay b Patel 5

Suresh Raina c Ponting b Johnson 10

Dwayne Bravo c Karthik b Ojha 10

S. Badrinath lbw b Ojha 16

Mahendra Singh Dhoni c Pollard b Patel 51

Ravindra Jadeja b Patel 16

Ravichandra Ashwin c Pollard b Harbhajan Singh 2

Ben Laughlin b Pollard 0

Ankit Rajpoot not out 2

Dirk Nannes not out 0

Extras (lb 1, w 6) 7

Total (Nine wickets in 20 overs) 139

Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Vijay, 1.6 overs), 2-30 (Raina, 4.3), 3-42 (Hussey, 7.4), 4-58 (Bravo, 10.2), 5-66 (Badrinath, 12.1), 6-97 (Jadeja, 15.2), 7-108 (Ashwin, 16.5), 8-126 (Laughlin, 17.5)

Bowling

Mitchell Johnson 4-0-22-1

Munaf Patel 4-0-29-3

Harbhajan Singh 4-0-31-2

Pragyan Ojha 4-0-16-2

Kieron Pollard 4-0-40-1

Match details

Toss: Mumbai Indians chose to bat

Umpires: M. Erasmus (South Africa) and V.A. Kulkarni

TV umpire: K. Srinath

Match referee: J. Srinath

Reserve umpire: K. Srinivasan