Murderous CSK annihilate MI

Chennai Super Kings played true to their name with total destruction of the Mumbai Indians bowling attack to chase a target of 185 with 20 balls to spare. Dwayne Smith and McCullum showed the doubters,if any, why they are the most destructive opening partnership in the IPL. Rohit Sharma wore a dejected look in his post match reactions with spirits at their lowest in the MI camp, having failed to defend such a huge total.

                                       MI started their innings akin to the previous games, with a batting collapse. Parthiv Patel, Corey Anderson and Lendl Simmons all departed in the opening four overs to leave their side reeling at 12/3.Nehra and Pandey were bowling well in tandem, complimeted by an electric fielding dispaly by the likes of McCullum and Du Plessis. To everyone's surprise, in came Harbhajan Singh at number 5. It seemed to shook Dhoni too as Harbhajan and Rohit Sharma, who was batting beautifully at the other end, took the attack to the opposition, instead of looking to play it safe. Bhajji's 24 somewhat resurrected the innings and by the time he was dismissed by Mohit Sharma, MI had reached 57/4 in the 10th over. Kieron Pollard continued from where he left off, hitting a six off Jadeja of the very first ball he faced. Their partnership accounted for 75 of just 33 balls, which included a 26 run over by Jadeja. Ambati Rayudu too made a quick fire 29, but Dwayne Bravo's miserly last three overs where he gave away only 15 runs picking up 2 wickets helped CSK to keep the target below 200.Nehra was the pick of the bowlers with 3/23.

                                       A batting pitch it was, but chasing a huge total like this needed some special hitting and CSK delivered it magnificiently.The Wankhede crowd was left shell-shocked by the treatment handled to their home bowlers. None were spared including Malinga who got hammered for 33 in his opening two overs.McCullum and Smith amassed 90 runs in the powerplay overs, the second highest in IPL history, the first also belonging to the Chennai outfit. Though both of the openers were dismissed in the same over by Harbhajan Singh, the damage had already been done with 109 run opening stand of 44 balls. Raina played elegantly and finished off the job for CSK with Dwayne Bravo.