IPL History: 5 greatest matches between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings

#4 Hardik Pandya announces his arrival: Chennai, 2015

Hardik Pandya gave Pawan Negi the beating of his life (Image courtesy: IPLT20/BCCI)

The tournament was approaching its business end when the two teams met at the Chepauk stadium in 2015.

Chennai batted first and made a competitive 158/5 in 20 overs, riding on handy contributions from MS Dhoni and Pawan Negi. Dhoni finished on an unbeaten 39 from 32 deliveries and Pawan Negi showed glimpses of the talent he possessed by scoring a quickfire unbeaten 36 from just 17 deliveries.

Though the track was slow, it wasn't an intimidating total by any means. However, with Chennai having the likes of Ashwin, Jadeja and Negi in the spin department, it wasn't going to be an easy ride either.

Mumbai started the run chase with a bang. Their openers Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons looked in ominous touch and they raced to 84/0 at the end of 10 overs. The match was quickly slipping from Chennai's grasp, but Ashwin had other plans.

He sent both Parthiv and Simmons back in the 11th over and Kieron Pollard was run-out in the next over, leaving Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu to do the rebuilding job. A few tight overs meant that the equation was down to 34 from the last 3 overs.

Rohit departed on the first delivery of the 18th over, and most people expected Harbhajan Singh to come out next in the wake of the ever-raising asking rate. Rohit, however, while his way back to the dugout, signalled the rookie Hardik Pandya to come out.

Dhoni gave the 19th over to Pawan Negi, who turned from hero to villain in the space of just 6 deliveries, as Pandya dispatched him all over Chepauk to fetch 22 runs from the 19th over. The home crowd was in shock for what they had witnessed from a relatively unknown player.

In the end, Mumbai easily achieved the target with 4 balls to go, and a new star was born on that night. Within a year after this match, it became evident that the Indian team finally had a hard-hitting, fast-bowling all-rounder that they were desperately searching for since years.