Mumbai Indians pay for shoddy fielding and decision to hold back Kieron Pollard till 17th over; MS Dhoni & Co touch glory after being denied in 2008.
Kieron Pollard threatened to take the game away from Chennai Super Kings with a late surge but even his big-hitting wasn’t good enough.
After dominating the league stage with 10 wins in 14 matches, Mumbai Indians stumbled when it mattered most as Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings beat the hosts by 22 runs in the final to lift the IPL 3 trophy at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday night.
Couple of seasons ago, Dhoni could only watch as Yusuf Pathan’s quickfire half-century and the plucky Shane Warne and Sohail Tanveer stole the game in the final.
This time the India & CSK captain wasn’t to be outdone.
Mumbai Indians had a bad day on the field and then made the mistake of holding back big-hitter Kieron Pollard till the very end when the job became next to impossible.
But the burly West Indian still scripted mayhem. Pollard’s 27 off 10, included three fours and two sixes, almost took Mumbai to an improbable victory.
When Pollard was carrying on his blitzkrieg, Dhoni positioned Matthew Hayden on the edge of the circle at mid-off after a careful survey of the field. Albie Morkel was whacked and Hayden dived and slid to hold onto a sharp chance. Dhoni ran down the wicket and pumped his fist in joy.
Pollard had just hit Chennai’s most consistent bowler, Doug Bollinger, for 22 runs in the 18th over. Hayden wouldn’t have taken a more valuable catch since his retirement from international cricket.
Mumbai skipper Sachin Tendulkar didn’t put a foot wrong on the day while batting. His determination to play in spite of the stitches on his finger spoke of how badly he wanted this title.
He made a brave effort to bat through the innings but fell when trying to force the pace.
However, he could still be faulted for giving his trump card Pollard too steep a challenge. The all-rounder bats lower down the order for Trinidad and Tobago and has done the same for Mumbai but holding him back till the 18th over even after Harbhajan Singh failed at No.4 made little sense.
Raina did wonderfully well to run in from the deep to dismiss the other big-hitter in the Mumbai line-up, Saurabh Tiwary, for nought. Rayudu provided hope till he was run out following a mix-up with Pollard. Chennai also held their catches, something Mumbai failed to do.
Earlier, Raina benefited from Mumbai largesse. Lady luck couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate time to back the CSK batsman. He was dropped twice, first on 13 and then on 28. Abhishek Nayar and Dilhara Fernando couldn’t decide who would take the first chance offered by Raina. Zaheer, who was the aggrieved bowler the first time, returned the ‘favour’ and dropped Raina again off Fernando next over.
The left-hander, the highest scorer for CSK this IPL, was chiefly responsible for his team knocking off 17 off the 15th over bowled by Zaheer and 19 off the next bowled by Pollard. In each of these overs, he responded to his reprieves with big shots.
Along with skipper Dhoni, Raina resuscitated the Chennai innings that had suffered severe losses as the Mumbai Indians’ bowlers stuck to an attacking line and length. Raina added 72 runs with Dhoni.
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