UnFOURgettable: Dhoni hits last ball four to help CSK beat MI in a thriller

MUMBAI: MS Dhoni rolled back the years with a vintage unbeaten 28 (13b, 3x4, 1x6) to help Chennai Super Kings to a thrilling last-ball win over Mumbai Indians in the IPL here on Thursday. Needing 17 runs of the last over, Dhoni struck a six and two fours to steer his team to a second win in seven matches in this edition, while the gut-wrenching loss has condemned Mumbai to a seventh straight defeat.

It was a tale of two left-arm fast bowlers with Mumbai’s Daniel Sams’ four for 30 and Chennai Super Kings’ Mukesh Choudhary’s three for 19 hogging the limelight until Dhoni stole their thunder. Sams broke Chennai’s spine accounting for four of the top five wickets with out-of-form Ruturaj Gaikwad getting out first ball. The move to promote Mitchell Santner up the order backfired with the kiwi getting out for 11. Ambati Rayudu and Robin Uthappa tried to steady the ship but once the latter got out for 30 (25b, 2x4, 2x6), it led to the required run-rate soaring.

Earlier, pacer Mukesh Choudhary wreaked havoc with the new ball before Tilak Varma’s responsible half-century lifted Mumbai Indians to 155 for seven.

Invited to bat, Choudhary (3/19) accounted for Rohit Sharma (0) and Ishan Kishan (0) in the first over and then dismissed Dewald Brewis (4), leaving Mumbai reeling at 23/3.

However, Varma’s unbeaten 51 off 43 balls, in which he struck three fours and two sixes, along with Jaydev Unadkat’s blazing unbeaten 19, helped Mumbai cross the 150 run-mark.

While Rohit offered an easy catch to Mitchell Santner at mid-on, Kishan was undone by a swinging yorker, which rattled his off-stump. Brewis (4) became Choudhary’s third victim. Brewis tried to chase a delivery outside the off stump, but ended up nicking to Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Suryakumar Yadav (32) started with a boundary, an on drive. He creamed another drive off Choudhary and then launched into mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana (1/35), sweeping him for a maximum. Mumbai was at 42/3 after the power-play.

BRIEF SCORES: Mumbai Indians 155/7 in 20 overs (T Varma 51*, S Yadav 32, M Choudhary 3/19) lost to Chennai Super Kings 156/7 in 20 overs (A Rayudu 40, D Sams 4/30)