CHENNAI, India, CMC – Opener Lendl Simmons and West Indies teammate Kieron Pollard suffered contrasting fortunes but still emerged on the winning side, as Mumbai Indians produced a late surge to beat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in the Indian Premier League here yesterday.
Playing at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Mumbai chased down Chennai’s 158 for five, reaching their target in the final over with four balls to spare.
Simmons and Parthiv Patel gave the hosts a rollicking start, adding 84 from 61 balls for the first wicket.
The right-handed Simmons gathered 38 off 31 balls with three fours and two sixes while Parthiv top-scored with 45 from 32 deliveries, with six fours.
In one over from seamer Ashish Nehra – the fifth of the innings – Simmons plundered 15 runs, crashing the left-armer for two fours and a six.
Parthiv fell off the first ball of the 10th over and Simmons followed three deliveries later, skying a sweep to another West Indies teammate Dwayne Smith at mid-wicket, at 85 for two.
Pollard fell in the next over, run out for one, with a throw from his fellow Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies counterpart Dwayne Bravo, finding him short of his ground at the striker’s end.
Facing a tall order of 51 runs from the last 24 balls, Ambati Rayudu (34 not out) and Hardik Pandya (21 not out) came to Mumbai’s rescue with an explosive, unbroken 34-run stand for the fifth wicket.
With just five runs needed from the last over, Bravo could do little as Mumbai gathered the runs required from the right-armer’s first two balls.
Earlier, Smith cracked 27 off 34 balls in a 44-run opening stand with big-hitting New Zealander Brendon McCullum who hit 23 from 11 balls.
When Chennai slumped to 104 for four in the 16th over, captain MS Dhoni (39 not out) and Pawan Negi (36 not out) put on 54 from 28 balls for the fifth wicket, to lend energy to the innings.
