Despite suffering a narrow six-run loss to Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians skipper Harbhajan Singh has appreciated the efforts of his boys and said he was proud of his team for putting up a fight in their Champions League Twenty20 in Johannesburg.
Chennai were off to a blistering start as they notched up 86 in 8.1 overs initially but Mumbai did well to restrict them to 173-8 in 20 overs from there on.
In reply, Dinesh Karthik notched up a 45-ball 74 to ignite hopes of a successful chase for Mumbai and Harbhajan said he was happy with the performance of his boys.
Whenever we play CSK it's always a good game," he said.
His Chennai counterpart, Mahendra Singh Dhoni felt they were around 15 runs short but he praised Ben Hilfenhaus (2-14) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-47) for their effort.
"It was important to guide Jadeja. Matches like these really groom a cricketer. Hilfenhaus was right on the money.
"We took the gamble of giving the later overs to the spinners. We could have got another 15 runs. 170 plus two runs makes a difference," Dhoni said.
Hilfenhaus, who was awarded the Man of the Match for claiming 2 for 14 in a high-scoring game, said: "After watching the way their seamers finished off the innings it gave us an idea of where to bowl.
"Variable bounce tonight. It's quite hard to defend on this ground."
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