Sanath smashes superb century, Mumbai maul the Super Kings by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings
Player:	ST Jayasuriya, SR Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, SM Pollock, DS Kulkarni, V Sivaramakrishnan, S Badrinath
Event:	Indian Premier League 2007/08

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DateLine: 15th May 2008

 

It would be fair to say that the Wankhede saw a near repeat of almost a decade earlier, when Sanath Jayasuirya had smashed the Indian bowlers to all parts of the grounds, en route his unbeaten 151 off 120 deliveries. The only difference between the two knocks was that Jayasuriya was batting for his home team today!

 

Earlier, in today’s match, the 36th of the tournament, Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to field first. Chennai Super Kings’ skipper M.S. Dhoni acknowledged that he would do the same had he won the toss. Shaun Pollock was his usual miserly self, as his first spell – consisting of three overs – went for nine runs only, to with the wicket that he scalped. Ashish Nehra bowled a costly first over, but once the first wicket of Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan fell, the run rate slowed down drastically. If scoring was a difficulty earlier, then the introduction of Dhawal Kulkarni – one of Mumbai’s find of this IPL – stunned the opponents with two wickets in an over and brought the crowd alive.

 

Dhoni played a maiden from Shaun Pollock – giving him stunning figures of 4-1-9-1 – but once he settled down in the company of S. Badrinath, there was no looking back. Towards the end of the innings, fours and sixes ruled the roost, as the team from South India slammed 67 runs off the last five overs, Tendulkar probably showing a bit of captaining experience by not preserving enough experienced bowlers for the slog. Badrinath scored the second consecutive fifty in IPL.

 

Mumbai Indians’ reply to Chennai’s 156 was stunning. In fact, it was Sanath Jayasuriya all the way, who was absolutely merciless on the Chennai bowlers, reminding all and sundry of that Jayasuriya of the 1996 World Cup. No bowler – bar Balaji – was spared, as the southpaw was merciless on anything that drifted even slightly down the leg-side, or was marginally short and outside the off stump. Dhoni could do nothing but appreciate the shots he played, as Jayasuriya brought about his first IPL 100 off 45 balls – and the fifth of the whole tournament – with a 26 run over off Chamara Kapugedera, which also sealed the match in less than 14 overs!

 

Jayasuriya was unanimously declared the Man-of-the-Match, as the Mumbai Indians now go up to eight points from eight matches, at par with Delhi at the sixth spot. Chennai are at the third position with 12 points.