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The Mumbai Indians scored an emphatic 5-wicket win over the Chennai Super Kings to go on top of the points table with a game in hand over a second placed Bangalore side. Chennai did well to set a target of 181, thanks to a resilient 83 from Suresh Raina but a blitzkrieg half-century from Shikhar Dhawan followed by a masterly 72 from the little master ensured Mumbai chased down the total with ease.

Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and decided to bowl first in what was an unusual decision saying he'd like to take advantage of a ‘sticky' wicket. MS Dhoni was happy to lose the toss, saying that batting first would take the pressure off his side, which had lost the previous two games chasing. While the Mumbai Indians were happy to announce an unchanged side from their win over the Knight Riders, Chennai made four changes in a bid to reverse their flagging fortunes. Apart from Dhoni, they brought in Joginder Sharma and Shadab Jakati while handing Sri Lankan all-rounder Thissara Perera his IPL debut. George Bailey was left out following his scratchy innings against Bangalore with M Vijay, R Ashwin and Sudeep Tyagi the others to lose out.

Tendulkar's decision to field almost seemed to have backfired on his team as Matthew Hayden came out all guns blazing. Four Zaheer Khan deliveries were dispatched for boundaries as the Aussie opener launched into the Indian pace spearhead in a way that was reminiscent of the 2003 World Cup finals. Hayden slashed, cut and played beautifully straight as Chennai moved to 31 off 3 overs. The fourth over saw one of the moments of the game as the much anticipated Harbhajan v/s Hayden duel took place. Hayden, well set by then, brought out the mongoose bat while a wily Harbhajan, equal to the task, came around the wicket in order to cramp the batsman.

The duel lasted only three balls though as a brilliant Harbhajan got one to skid through and rap Hayden plumb in front of the stumps. Thrilled to have got his man, Harbhajan set off on his victory lap as the crowds went delirious. Parthiv Patel followed his partner quickly, cramping himself for space to be bowled by the impressive Ryan McLaren in the next over. With two new batsmen in inside the powerplay, Mumbai failed to take advantage as Suresh Raina counter-attacked and did so wonderfully well. Looking relaxed with the burden of captaincy lifted off him, Raina welcomed Bravo with a flicked six before a gorgeously punched boundary.

While Harbhajan kept things tight from one end, Bravo was guilty of leaking runs from the other. The pair concentrated on rotating the strike for Harbhajan while Bravo was punished for some ordinary bowling as Chennai reached 85/2 at the 10 over mark. Lasith Malinga, held back by Tendulkar with a plan to utilize his death bowling skills was introduced into the attack at this point of time.

Malinga began well, with a lucky boundary to Badrinath being the only blemish in an otherwise fine over, but soon lost his way as both batsmen quickly adapted to his slowish stuff. His second over produced 11 runs with both batsmen hitting a boundary apiece and after a mini mid-innings slowdown where Harbhajan and McLaren finished off their spells; the batsmen launched into the fast bowlers. Raina pulled Zaheer before heaving Malinga for a huge six and with Badrinath also hitting timely boundaries as the last 5 overs produced 54 runs.

Malinga pulled things back a little by closing the innings with a tidy over but the damage had been done by then as Chennai racked up 180 runs on a tricky looking pitch. Between them, Harbhajan and McLaren gave away 48 runs in 8 overs at 6.00 a far cry from the 128 at 10.66 the other three bowlers gave away.

Mumbai's response to a tough chase was typically pugnacious, and though Tendulkar looked circumspect to start off with, Shikhar Dhawan made up for it with some excellent shot-making. Laxmipathy Balaji was crashed through extra-cover for a boundary and the bowler responded with a horrible fiver which beat a diving Dhoni. Mumbai were 34/0 in 4 overs when Dhoni brought on his ‘go to guy' Joginder Sharma for a bowl. Dhawan demonstrated why it wasn't a good idea and did it in style. He pulled the short of length balls and lashed at the full length ones as the Mumbai Indians brought up their 50 in the fifth over. The next over he went one better - smashing Balaji for two huge sixes while displaying the full swing of his bat. Shadab Jakati, playing his first game of the series, was surprisingly introduced ahead of Murali as soon as the powerplay was over, and he too was taken to the cleaners.

Dhawan danced down the track to Jakati and brought a fantastic fifty in the spinner's next over, but Jakati had the last laugh as Dhawan miscued one in the same over for Raina to complete the formalities. Muralitharan then knocked over the in-form Saurabh Tiwary for 2 and Chennai had pulled back some ground with Mumbai looking just a little wobbly at 98/2 off 10.

It was time for Tendulkar, 28* off 26 till then to take over the reins of the chase and he announced his intentions with a superb six off Muralitharan - incidentally Sachin's first of the tournament. With Sachin settling down in his groove, Sathish's wicket was just a minor blip and with Kieron Pollard coming in, the chase never lost steam.

The game ceased to be a contest in the 16th when Thissara Perera bowled his first over of the game. Perera, probably nervous playing his first IPL game in front of a boisterous away crowd bowled five full-tosses, four of which were promptly sent to the ropes as Mumbai were left to get a mere 29 of the last 4 overs.

Murali came back to claim Pollard the next over and Sachin too fell towards the end with 9 required of 10 balls but there were a lot of full-tosses sprayed around and the Mumbai batting had enough depth to utilize all of them. Tendulkar was dropped once by Dhoni, almost dragged the ball on to his stumps thrice, was almost run-out once thanks to a bad mix-up, took time to get going but the champion that he is he still managed the innings that made the difference between the two sides.

With almost everybody in their batting order looking in sublime form, Mumbai will be hoping the bowling reaches more consistent levels in the games to come. They would certainly be the team to watch out for in the second half of the tourney and look favourites to make the semi-finals at the very least . Chennai look a bit lost at the moment, and their main worry seems to be the lack of that winning combination. They need to pick up some inspiration from somewhere as they take on another side on the rise next, the Rajasthan Royals.

Mini Scorecard:

Chennai Super Kings: 180/2 (20 overs, 9.00 rpo)
Raina 83                  McLaren 1/23
Badrinath 55            Harbhajan 1/25

Mumbai Indians: 184/5 (19 overs, 9.68 rpo)
Tendulkar 72            Muralitharan 2/32
Dhawan 56               Sharma 1/23

Also read: Match Preview: Rajasthan Royals vs. Deccan Chargers

File Photograph Copyright: Gayatri Naik

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