Chennai clinch last-ball thriller

Mumbai Indians' Sachin Tendulkar drives one through the offside on way to scoring a gusty 44 off 29 balls against Pune Warriors at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. PHOTO: CRICINFO

Ravindra Jadeja and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni snatched a dramatic four-wicket victory off the last ball for Chennai Super Kings over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai yesterday. In the day's other match, Mumbai Indians sealed a comprehensive 41-run win over the Pune Warriors at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Needing two runs from the last ball of the over in chase of 166, Jadeja hit a short ball from Rudra Pratap Singh straight down the throat of deep third man but the umpire signalled a no-ball, and as the batsman had crossed for a single Chennai and not Bangalore finished victorious.
It was a fantastic comeback from the men in yellow as after the loss of early wickets they were behind the asking rate for most of the chase. When the last five overs began, Chennai needed 65 with six wickets in hand. From there first Dhoni, and at the end Jadeja, ramped up their efforts, taking in excess of 10 runs from each over. With 16 needed off the last over, Jadeja hit the first two deliveries for four and six, setting the stage for Singh to overstep and hand Chennai a match they had fought valiantly to win.
Chasing 166, Chennai got off to a terrible start, losing openers Mike Hussey and Murali Vijay with just ten on the board coming from four overs. Then Suresh Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath put on 56 for the third wicket, before Dhoni and Jadeja weighed in with a match-turning partnership of 59 in only 5.5 overs. Dhoni's dismissal for a 23-ball 33 off the first ball of the penultimate over put the onus on Jadeja who emerged the hero of the day with a 20-ball 38.
Earlier in the match, Bangalore rode on half-centuries from skipper Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to score a competitive 165 for six after being asked to bat. After Chris Gayle's early departure batting mainstays Kohli and de Villiers ceased the initiative with a furious 82-run third-wicket stand. Kohli scored 58 off 47 deliveries, but de Villiers was especially brutal, hitting eight fours and a six in his 32-ball 64. Chris Morris enjoyed the most success among the Chennai bowlers with three for 40 while Ravichandran Ashwin was the most economical, conceding 28 runs from four overs for one wicket.
In the day's previous match, batting first Mumbai Indians posted a challenging total of 183 for three, courtesy a fantastic 62 by Rohit Sharma and useful contributions from Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik.
Sharma blazed his way to an unbeaten 32-ball 62 as Mumbai Indians posted a challenging 183 for three after opting to bat. He went all-out in the final few overs to help Mumbai Indians amass 109 runs in the back 10 after having scored 72 at the halfway stage. With Ashok Dinda (0-63) leaking runs with monotonic regularity, MI managed 68 in the final five overs. Sharma and Kieron Pollard added those runs in only 4.5 overs.
The Mumbai bowlers then took wickets at regular intervals to restrict Pune Warriors to 142 for eight despite Mitchell Marsh's rearguard effort of 38.
Left-arm speedster Mitchell Johnson swung the match in Mumbai's favour at the onset as his inswinging yorker castled Pune's last-match hero Aaron Finch and then got one to come in to dismiss Robin Uthappa while Ross Taylor was run-out.
From 13 for three, the comeback was virtually impossible and the likes of Yuvraj Singh and captain Angelo Mathews also could not make much of a headway as the target became a tall order.

SCORES IN BRIEF
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: 165 for 6 (De Villiers 62, Kohli 58, Agarwal 24; Morris 3-40, Ashwin 1-28.
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: 166 for 6 (Jadeja 38 not out, Badrinath 34, Dhoni 33, Raina 30; Rampaul 3-31, Mohammad 2-15).
Result: Chennai Super Kings won by 4 wickets
Player-of-the-match: Ravindra Jadeja
MUMBAI INDIANS: 183 for 3 in 20 overs (Sharma 62 not out, Tendulkar 44, Karthik 41; Finch 1-11, Yuvraj 1-13). PUNE WARRIORS: 142 for 8 in 20 overs (Marsh 38, Yuvraj 24, Suman 23; Johnson 3-33)
Result: Mumbai Indians won by 41 runs.
Player-of-the-match: Rohit Sharma.