IPL 4 Match 25: Chennai Super King's Badrinath in Vain Stand as Mumbai Indians Prevail

The Chennai Super Kings would have fancied their chances. However, some shoddy batting in the end cost them the match agaisnt the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

rohit sharma mi

Rohit Sharma staged a great comeback for the Mumbai Indians with eighty-seven runs after Mumbai Indians wobbled very early with the MI captain, Sachin Tendulkar, amongst those sent to the pavilion early.

From two for thirteen, Mumbai Indians rallied from two crucial partnerships between Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu and Sharma and Andrew Symonds that helped Mumbai post a decent total of 164. Sharma was the backbone, Rayudu the support staff in the middle with twenty-seven runs and Symonds in a strong flourish with a personal knock of thirty-one runs in partnership worth eighty-seven runs.

Kieron Pollard's bat may have been silent, but with the ball, he got the Mumbai Indians the crucial breakthrough, including taking a spectacular catch to dismiss Michael Hussey, a crucial member in the CSK chase, for forty-one runs. At two down for ninety-eight in the twelfth over, the Chennai Super Kings had a real chance to attack the Mumbai Indians' total with eight wickets still in hand. But the dismissal of Hussey seemed to have sent the CSK team into a tizzy as they lost six wickets for forty-two runs.

Subramaniam Badrinath cut a solitary figure in the middle and it seemed that Badrinath and Hussey had pulled CSK out of early trouble from two for thirty-eight for a sixty run partnership, but the lack of another cost CSK badly because the Mumbai Indians fielded spectacularly to fight tooth and nail for every run.

The key factor in Chennai's downfall was Harbhajan Singh as he picked up five wicket haul as the CSK batsmen tried desperately to hit out to get the remaining runs. It was a poor display of desperate batting in the end, but it was terrific effort from Harbhajan Singh, particularly since he has not been amongst the wicket taking action lately although he has been tight with his bowling.

To hand Chennai an eight run defeat when he seemed Chennai could do it in style with wickets in hand and Badrinath in a determined fight back mode with seventy-one runs from forty-eight balls. However, with the wickets falling in an anti climatic finish, Chennai need to sort out their issues early.