Thursday, April 5, 2012

Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians, IPL 2012

Posted by sahill786 at 8:41 AM 0 Comments

Mumbai Indians 115 for 2 (Levi 50) beat Chennai Super Kings 112 (Pollard 2-15, Malinga 2-16, Ojha 2-17) by eight wickets.

Mumbai Indians' new signings, Pragyan Ojha and Richard Levi, made immediate impact to set up an easy win over defending champions Chennai Super Kings in the season opener. Richard Levi swiped his way to a 35-ball 50 in an easy chase, but it was Ojha who made the crucial contribution. He made a seamless transition from Deccan Chargers to Mumbai, taking two wickets in his first two overs to pull Super Kings just when they were threatening to break free.

Super Kings were 69 for 2, having made a bit of a comeback from a slow start, when Ojha was introduced in the 10th over, and three wickets in the next four overs - including those of danger men Suresh Raina and Dwayne Bravo - meant they could add only 43 in the rest of the piece. Kieron Pollard was a good deputy to Ojha, taking two wickets after the spinner had dismissed the settled batsmen.

Ojha refused to give them pace or flatness, and Raina, 36 off 26, picked out sweeper-cover off the fifth ball Ojha bowled. In Ojha's next, Bravo found long-on with similar precision to fall for a run-a-ball 19. Ojha couldn't be kept out of the game. He soon caught the promoted Albie Morkel off the varied bowling off Pollard. In Ojha's last over, the 16th, MS Dhoni fell for a rare non-direct-hit run-out. It must have been some pressure of suffocation at work. Ojha finished with 2 for 17 in his four, and Pollard dismissed S Badrinath in his last to finish with figures of 2 for 15.

At 99 for 7 in the 17th over, with two Lasith Malinga overs left, no one would have expected an addition of many more than the eventual 13. The beefy Levi then charged out in the chase, swinging the shoulders, mostly to leg, hitting sixes off Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Dwayne Bravo. The pitch remained lively: Doug Bolinger hit both Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar with uneven bounce, forcing the latter to retire-hurt. Levi's explosive start, though, had done enough, and Mumbai cruised through with 3.1 overs to spare.

Innings Dot balls 4s 6s Powerplay 16-20 overs NB/Wides

Chennai Super Kings 55 6 1 42-2 13-4 0/7

Mumbai Indians 48 9 5 53-0 11-0 (16.5) 0/3

It is hard to recall a Mumbai Indians victory without a significant contribution from Lasith Malinga. Such has been the impact of the slinger from

Sri Lanka

. The opening match of IPL 2012 was no exception. The yorker specialist once again lived up to his reputation as MI defeated the Chennai Super Kings in their own backyard.

However, true to his policy of keeping it simple, Malinga played down the act of defeating the defending champions on their home ground.

“We went into the ground focusing on our strengths and our capabilities and tried to give our best. We were not thinking about who the opposition was,” Malinga said with typical nonchalance in his exclusive chat with iplt20.com after the comprehensive eight-wicket win in Chennai.

Malinga was the pioneer of MI’s inspirational triumph in the 2011 CLT20, being the highest wicket-taker for his team in that tournament. The final was played on this very ground – the Chepauk – and Malinga picked up two crucial wickets in that game.

He reminisced those moments with pride and was happy to replicate his performance in the IPL season opener, on a wicket that has become more conducive to seam bowling than it was last September. “During the Champions League T20 there was a bit of turn in the wicket, but this time there isn’t much turn. It seems to have much more for the pacers,” he said.

While Malinga has been the spearhead of the MI bowling attack over the past seasons, this time he is in august company of two fellow former purple cap holders – RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha. Malinga believes MI has one of the most formidable bowling line-ups in the tournament. “We have a good bowling attack. Both RP and Ojha are very experienced and have taken a lot of wickets in the IPL,” he said.