Mumbai Indains Beat Chennai

MUMBAI: Mumbai Indians  India to bat first and made 187 runs in 20 overs. Winning the toss and chosen to bat, Mumbai openers started well.Final of the IPL8 with a comprehensive 25-run win over
the Chennai Super Kings in the first qualifier at the Wankhede on Tuesday. Chasing a stiff
target of 188, Harbhajan Singh tore the heart of the CSK batting order when he picked the
wickets of Suresh Raina and captain MS Dhoni off successive deliveries.

With this win, Mumbai entered the tournament's final which will be played at the Eden Gardens
in Kolkata on May 24. Chennai will get a second chance to make it to the final. They will face the winner of the eliminator to be played on Wednesday between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore,in the second qualifier in Ranchi on May 22.

Lasith Malinga (3/23), Harbhajan Singh (2/26) and R. Vinay Kumar (2/26) were the pick of the

Mumbai bowlers.Chasing 188 to win, CSK got off to the worst possible start losing opener Dwayne

Smith without scoring off the fourth ball of the first over.

A full toss from pacer Lasith Malinga hit straight into Smith's front pad which made it easy

for the umpire to give the batsman out.Michael Hussey didn't let the early wicket affect their

scoring. With a couple of boundaries and sixes, CSK reached 46 in 5 overs.

But the very first ball of the sixth over brought the brakes in Chennai's scoring as bowler

Vinay Kumar got the vital wicket of Hussey (16). CSK were 46/2 in 5.1 overs then.
Suresh Raina and du Plessis took it from there to help the team reach a score of 86/2 in 10 overs.

But the over that followed saw the match swinging in the home side's favour as Harbhajan Singh
got rid of Raina (25) and skipper M.S. Dhoni (0) in successive deliveries to help Mumbai stay
in the hunt.

Mumbai bowlers kept the bowling tight, making it difficult for the visitors to score.
Set batsman du Plessis (45 off 34 balls), looking to up the scoring rate, departed in the 14th
over off the bowling of Jagadeesha Suchith.

It wasn't over yet. Dwayne Bravo (20), Ravindra Jadeja (19), Pawan Negi (3) all fell
thereafter. Earlier, opting to bat, Mumbai got off to a modest start with openers Lendl Simmons and Parthiv  Patel taking their time to get settled in the first four overs, scoring just 22.

Simmons broke the shackles in the fifth over as spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was hit for two sixes. Thirteen runs were scored of the over.

The over of Ashwin set the momentum for the home side as both the openers kept on striking the
ball sweetly to all parts of the park thus bringing up the team's 50 in 6.2 overs.

Simmons, who is Mumbai's leading run-scorer in the ongoing season, once again proved his worth
as he made a mockery of the bowling, thus bringing up his half-century off just 38 balls.