Chennai v Mumbai, eliminator, IPL 2012, Bangalore

Mumbai in trouble in big chase

Chennai Super Kings 187 for 5 (Dhoni 51, Hussey 49) v Mumbai Indians (last update)

Chennai Super Kings overcame a poor start in one of the most productive venues this IPL to leave Mumbai Indians with a challenging target to chase in a knockout clash. Michael Hussey and S Badrinath rode on some fortune to help their team recover from trouble and MS Dhoni assumed that attacking avatar that made him such a sensation in the early days of his international career. The combined efforts of those three, and Dwayne Bravo's late surge, boosted Super Kings just as Mumbai Indians dropped their guard; even though Super Kings lost some quick wickets in the latter half of the innings, Mumbai Indians simply couldn't contain the flow of runs.

Mumbai Indians captain Harbhajan Singh has been one of the weak links in his team's bowling this season but he brought himself on to open, and delivered two miserly overs, one of them a maiden. His job was made easier by seamer Dhawal Kulkarni, retained in the side after his three-for in Mumbai Indians' previous game. Kulkarni found late swing immediately, and earned two wickets with M Vijay nicking a wide one to slip and Suresh Raina dragging one onto his stumps next ball. Badrinath and Hussey, who survived a close lbw shout in the first over, took the challenge head on.

In their attempt to counterattack, both were lucky to find boundaries off edges with the seamers still finding some movement. But they also middled a few, and found the gaps consistently despite the field being pushed back after the Powerplay. Both drove well, Badrinath cracking Kulkarni past mid-off and Hussey creaming Lasith Malinga through extra cover. When Harbhajan brought his medium-pacers on, with their frequent dose of slower balls, Super Kings ensured the tempo remained. Kieron Pollard was pulled for two fours in an over, the 10th of the innings, after the first timeout - the cue, presumably, for Super Kings to take the fightback to another level.

Harbhajan, shuffling the bowling around, was himself smashed for two sixes before Hussey took RP Singh for two boundaries. The first four overs after the timeout yielded 47. Hussey, Badrinath and Ravindra Jadeja, however, fell in a space of 11 deliveries, but the last eight overs of the innings were to produce 105 runs.

The man largely responsible for that was Dhoni, who flicked his first ball for four over midwicket. Though he has come to exercise far more restraint in his batting, the approach today betrayed no signs of that recent tendency to accumulate steadily before opening up. To his advantage, Mumbai Indians doled out a spate of length balls that he wasn't willing to spare. James Franklin was dispatched over long-on for the biggest six of this tournament, Kulkarni was thrashed down the ground and past cover, and he even had time to make room and cart RP over extra cover.

The stand-out shot was his favourite whiplash, imparting tremendous force against a length ball from Malinga that found itself in the deep-midwicket stand. Bravo, in that penultimate over, launched Malinga - who bowled his most expensive spell of this season - over midwicket and extra cover before finishing off with two sixes off Kulkarni.