Qualifier 1
The Mumbai Indians have advanced to the final of the Indian Premier League with a 25-run victory over the Chennai Super Kings in the first qualifier at Wankhede Stadium.
The Super Kings finished top of the standings before the playoffs, but they will now have to beat the winner of the eliminator between Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals tomorrow in Pune if they are to make the final and set up a rematch with Mumbai.
The Indians won the toss, choosing to bat first, and they got off to a fine start as openers Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel put on a partnership of 90.
Patel was the first to fall for 35 before Simmons had his wicket taken by Ravindra Jadeja after scoring 65 off 51 balls for his fifth fifty of this year's IPL.
Simmons was the game's top scorer, but it was Kieron Pollard's late blast of 41 off just 17 that propelled Mumbai to 187-6 from their 20 overs.
Chennai's reply got off to a bad start, with Dwayne Smith falling for a duck in the first over as Lasith Malinga trapped him lbw.
Faf du Plessis (45) put on 40+ partnerships with both Michael Hussey (16) and Suresh Raina (25) to steady the Super Kings' innings, but once those three had been removed they tailed away and never looked like reaching the victory target.
In the end, 2013 champions Mumbai took all 10 wickets with an over to spare as Chennai were bowled out for 162.
Eliminator
Royal Challengers Bangalore have taken a step closer to the Indian Premier League final by beating Rajasthan Royals by 71 runs in Pune.
The Royal Challengers will now face Chennai Super Kings, with the winner going on to meet Mumbai Indians in the final.
Bangalore posted a total of 180-4 before the Royals were bowled out for just 109 with an over remaining.
AB de Villiers (66) and Mandeep Singh (54 not out) made the bulk of the Royal Challengers' runs, while Chris Gayle (27) and Virat Kohli (12) also chipped in at the top of the order.
Dhawal Kulkarni ended with bowling figures of 2-28 for Rajasthan, who also had Chris Morris among the wickets. De Villers was run out thanks to the work of James Faulkner and Stuart Binny.
Despite a knock of 42 from opener Ajinkya Rahane, the Royals struggled to consistently put runs on the board.
Sanju Samson was dismissed for five, while Shane Watson (10), Steven Smith (12), Karun Nair (12) and Deepak Hooda (11) all failed to take the match to their opponents. A lower-order collapse that yielded just 14 runs confirmed Bangalore's progress.
Sreenath Aravind, Harshal Patel, David Wiese and Yuzvendra Chahal all ended with two wickets apiece for the Royals Challengers who also had Mitchell Starc do some damage with the ball.
Qualifier 2
Chennai Super Kings qualified for their sixth Indian Premier League final by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in a last-over thriller this afternoon.
RCB could only manage 139-8 and Chennai got over the line on the penultimate ball, thanks largely to 56 from Michael Hussey, to set up a showdown with Mumbai Indians.
Ashish Nehra dismissed two of Bangalore's destructive top three cheaply as Virat Kohli (12) and AB de Villiers (one) fell cheaply to leave their side on 25-2.
That put the pressure on Chris Gayle, but the West Indian restrained himself to top score with 41 from 43 balls before he was caught & bowled by Suresh Raina.
Four boundaries apiece from Dinesh Karthik (28) and 17-year-old Sarfaraz Khan (31) toward the end of the innings helped to elevate RCB to a defendable total.
Bangalore's teenager gave them a chance, but it was 40-year-old veteran Hussey who would make the key contribution as his perfectly-paced 56 anchored Chennai's reply.
Support came from Dwayne Smith (17), Faf du Plessis (23) and MS Dhoni (26), although Mitchell Starc took two wickets in the 19th over to make things interesting.
Dhoni also fell with three balls to go, but Ravichandran Ashwin hitting the winning runs to secure the Super Kings a three-wicket win which sets up a rematch of the 2013 final.
Final - CSK V MI
The Mumbai Indians won their second Indian Premier League title with a thumping 41-run win over the Chennai Super Kings at Eden Gardens this evening.
Top-seed Chennai won the toss and put Mumbai into bat, a decision that appeared to be a good one when Faf du Plessis ran out Parthiv Patel for a duck in the opening over.
However, a partnership of 119 from Lendl Simmons (68) and Rohit Sharma (50) put the Indians back in control.
The duo fell on back-to-back deliveries to give Chennai hope of restricting Mumbai's total, but Kieron Pollard and Ambati Rayudu both scored quickfire 36s in a 71 partnership to help the Indians to 202/5 from their 20 overs.
In response, Chennai lost danger-man Michael Hussey for just four runs after a slow start and didn't look like chasing down the total.
Dwayne Smith led from the front with 57, but none of his teammates joined him in posting a big score as the Super Kings fell 41 runs short of their target on 161/8.
With victory, Mumbai join Chennai and the Kolkata Knight Riders as the only teams to win the IPL twice.
No comments:
Post a Comment