IPL History: CSK's 3 most memorable wins against MI
Chennai Super Kings have been the most successful team in the IPL. They are also the most popular and most followed franchise in IPL history. Their Captain MS Dhoni is the only captain from the first edition of the IPL who is currently active in international cricket. Dhoni along with Suresh Raina has been playing for CSK since the inaugural edition of the IPL.
The rivalry between CSK and Mumbai Indians has been legendary in IPL history. In fact, MI is the only team in IPL who has a better win record against CSK. In a total of 26 matches played between these two teams so far, Mumbai has the upper hand with 14 wins against CSK’s 12.
CSK being the most successful team in the IPL, it would be only appropriate to write separate articles for each one of CSK’s 3 most memorable wins against each opponent. In the first edition of the sequence, let us revisit CSK’s 3 memorable wins against arch-rival MI.
#3. At Chennai in 2008
This was CSK’s second match in IPL history and first at home. While there is no prize for guessing who captained CSK, Harbhajan Singh was the Captain for MI in the absence of the regular captain Sachin Tendulkar. Dwayne Bravo, CSK’s current hero, was playing for MI at that time.
Harbhajan won the toss and invited CSK to bat. For MI, Shaun Pollock and Ashish Nehra opened the bowling while Matthew Hayden and Parthiv Patel opened the batting for CSK. Patel took most of the strike in the first two overs and hit 3 fours.
Hayden got going in Pollock’s second over drilling him for 2 fours and 1 six. The loss of Parthiv Patel and Mike Hussey didn’t stop Hayden from going for his shots. The southpaw in the company of Suresh Raina flourished to reach his 50 off 33 balls. Raina too reached his 50 off exactly the same number of balls before losing his wicket. The duo stitched together a century partnership.
Hayden was unstoppable after reaching his 50 as he added 31 runs to his individual score in the next 13 balls. He added 51 runs in 4 overs with MS Dhoni before he ran himself out. CSK reached a formidable score of 208 at the end of 20 overs.
When Mumbai started their chase, a lot was expected from the Sri Lankan powerhouse Sanath Jayasuriya. But after smashing 4 fours, Jayasuriya disappointed the sporting Chennai crowd when he left for 20. While Robin Uthappa held the Mumbai innings together scoring 43, the overseas all-rounders Pollock and Bravo failed with the bat.
At one stage, MI were 141 for 6 needing 68 off 27 balls. When everyone thought the game was as good as over, Abhishek Nayar and Harbhajan launched into Palani Amarnath for 21 runs in the 17th over of the innings. The next over of Jacob Oram went for 13 runs. Now Mumbai needed 28 in 2 overs.
It was the guile of Muttiah Muralitharan which saved the day for CSK. He bowled the crucial 19th over of the innings and removed the dangerous looking Harbhajan conceding a mere 9 runs in the process. However, Nayar kept Mumbai in the game squeezing 2 fours off the first 2 balls of the last over. But Joginder Sharma kept his cool for the last 4 balls and in the end, CSK won by 6 runs after posting 208.
The rivalry between CSK and MI in IPL started on that day at Chepauk.