Daily News

Chennai Super Kings played the smarter cricket and deservingly won the IPL Cup by defeating fancied Mumbai Indians by 22 runs at the packed DY Patil Stadium.

Batting first after winning the toss, the Super Kings shrugged off a slow start as "Player of the Match" Suresh Raina (57 not out), dropped twice, led from the front to pile up 168 for five and then turned in some brilliant performance in the field to restrict Mumbai Indians to 146 for nine.

The much-heralded Mumbai batting line-up caved in under pressure despite a brave 48 by skipper Sachin Tendulkar and big-hitting by Kieron Pollard (27 off 10) even as the Super Kings took some brilliant catches with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni yet again spot-on with his field placements and bowling changes.

Apart from Raina, there were quite a few other heroes for the Super Kings. Spinners Muttiah Muralitharan (17 runs in four overs), Shadab Jakati (2 for 26 from three) and Ravichandran Ashwin (24 in four) and later, seamers Albie Morkel and Doug Bollinger, all chipped in at the right moment to author a historic victory for the Super Kings who had finished runners-up in 2008.

The other factor that tilted the scales in the Super Kings, who also won the Fair Play trophy, favour was the team composition, besides of course their superior fielding. The Chennai outfit kept their faith in their three specialist spinners and held their catches.

The Mumbai Indians went in with just one in Harbhajan Singh while opting for an overly pace attack that was not as effective on a pitch that grew progressively slower.

The home team, faced with a big target, never got into their stride despite a promising second wicket partnership between Tendulkar and Abhishek Nayar who put on 66 runs. But Nayar committed a blunder attempting a non-existing single and was run out. The rot well and truly set in at that point.

Later, despite Tendulkar farming the bowling, wickets fell at the other end. The spinners came into their own with Ashwin up front followed by Muralitharan and Jakati, who dismissed Tendulkar and the dangerous Saurabh Tiwary in one over, doing the bulk of damage.

The Mumbai Indians kept back the powerful Pollard and when he came into bat, the asking rate had climbed to over 15. He blasted some massive hits, but it was all too little too late and he eventually fell to a brilliant catch by Matthew Haydenwho thus atoned for a dropped chance earlier in the evening.

The turning point of course was Jakati's third and the 15th over of the innings when he removed Tendulkar and Tiwary. Thereafter, the rest of the batsmen, barring Pollard, were simply not up to the task and although Pollard took 22 off Bollinger in the 18th over, his exit signaled the end of the Mumbai Indians' challenge.

Super Kings did well not to look the gift horse in the mouth when they batted. The going in the initial overs was rather painful and scratchy despite a few big hits by the two openers, Murali Vijay and Hayden who looked distinctly out of depth.

In fact, Hayden was lucky to survive a plumb leg-before decision early in his innings, but even otherwise, was unconvincing. At the other end, Vijay batted quite beautifully until he tried to break the shackles and departed in the eighth over.

Hayden followed his partner back into the dugout, miscuing a big hit. Subramaniam Badrinath did not stay long and with the runs all but dried up, he too fell trying to force the pace and the Super Kings were reduced to 67 for three in the 12th over.

In walked skipper Dhoni and almost immediately set about repairing the damage. Raina, meanwhile, lived a charmed life, being dropped when on 13 and 28 and the Mumbai Indians were to pay a heavy price for these lapses.

The pair went on at a good clip to add 72 runs for the fourth wicket before Dhoni fell in the 18th over trying to maintain the brisk pace.

At this stage, the Super Kings still did not have enough runs on the board, but Raina and Albie Morkel came up with some big hits to push the score along. However, just when the partnership appeared to be flourishing, Morkel was run out attempting a bye in the final over.

Lasith Malinga sent down two dot balls to Raina and off the third, the southpaw batsman attempted a suicidal bye that caught Morkel well short of the crease. Another dot ball followed to new man Anirudha Srikkanth and then five wides. Anirudha hit the fifth legal ball to the boundary and finished the innings with a two.

Thus, a total of 168 gave the Super Kings lots to play with after looking hopelessly out of the contest in the first 10 overs when they scored a mere 59 runs.