Openers Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum shared a breathtaking 109-run stand off 44 balls as Chennai Super Kings outplayed Mumbai Indians by six wickets to maintain their unbeaten run in IPL 8.
Mumbai Indians recovered from a poor start to post a competitive 183 for seven, but Smith (62 runs off 30 balls) and McCullum (46 off 20) ensured Chennai Super Kings chased down the target with 20 balls to spare.
The lone bowler who stood out in the high-scoring game was 'Super King' Ashish Nehra, who took three wickets for 23 runs in his four overs.
Suresh Raina (43 not out) and Dwayne Bravo (13 not out) took the visitors home, after both the dangerous openers fell in the same over, but not before enthralling the Wankhede crowd in Mumbai with their brutal hitting.
It was Super Kings' third victory in as many games while Mumbai Indians suffered their fourth straight loss.
Both Smith and McCullum toyed with Mumbai Indians' bowling attack, the former smashing eight boundaries and four massive sixes.
McCullum too wasn’t far behind with six fours and two sixes.
Earlier, blistering half centuries from captain Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard enabled Mumbai Indians recover from a poor start.
Opting to bat, Mumbai plunged to a sorry-reading 12 for three and then 57 for 4 before they were revived by Sharma (50 off 31 balls) and Pollard (64 off 30). The duo put on a pulsating stand of 75 runs off just 33 balls for the fifth wicket.
While Sharma batted in his usual forthright manner, hitting five fours and a six, Pollard collared the Super Kings attack to strike five sixes and four fours.
The initial recovery work was laid by a quick 24 off 21 balls by Harbhajan Singh, who was surprisingly promoted ahead of the big West Indian.
Towards the end, Ambati Rayudu too came up with a cameo knock of 29, inclusive of three sixes and a four, in the company of Pollard. Both fell to catches in the deep in the last over, bowled by Dwayne Bravo.
The bit-hitting of Pollard, in particular, not only regaled the big crowd but also helped Mumbai add 121 runs in the second half of the innings after they were 62 for 4 after ten overs.
Super Kings' bowling looked clueless on how to stop Pollard.
Ashish Nehra grabbed three wickets for 23, Jadeja went for 49 runs, including 26 in his fourth over, and Ashwin conceded 13 in his only over. The other World Cup regular, Mohit Sharma, gave away 43 runs for one wicket.
Mumbai Indians were off to a poor start as they lost their first three wickets inside four overs.
Nehra sent back Parthiv Patel leg before for a first ball duck, when the batsman shuffled across to the fourth ball of the innings.
Corey Anderson was caught brilliantly by Faf du Plessis behind bowler Nehra off the seventh ball.
Simmons, playing his first game of the season in place of the injured Aaron Finch, went on the offensive in the fourth over from Ishwar Pandey before falling to the same bowler.
Promoting Harbhajan up the order proved to a productive move. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Harbhajan pushed the score along to 31 at the end of power play overs.
Harbhajan batted aggressively to smack two fours and a six over long on off Jadeja as he and captain Sharma added 45 useful runs off 35 balls to take the score past 50 before he mistimed a shot off Mohit and was caught at backward point.
