Mumbai shellack defending champs Chennai in IPL opener

CHENNAI: Mumbai Indians slammed defending champions Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets to get the Indian Premier League 2012 underway at the M.A. Chidambaram here, on Wednesday.

The Champions League winners overhauled the paltry 113 target with 19 balls to spare, as their latest acquisition – South African Richard Levi – blasted a racy half-century on IPL debut. Levi’s fireworks at the top of the order took Mumbai to 69 in a shade under eight overs – by which time the match had ended as a contest.

Levi’s brisk 50 off 35 balls on IPL debut did the job for Mumbai

A fair share of the credit should go to Mumbai’s bowling, which was at its restrictive best against a bizarrely clueless Chennai batting order on a track with strange ‘tennis ball’ bounce – as Sunil Gavaskar described it. The visiting side elected to field, and disallowed the title holders to get a move on. Only Suresh Raina (36) crossed 20 as Chennai huffed and puffed against Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard and Pragyan Ojha, who in concert claimed six victims while conceding just 48 runs in 11.5 overs.

The second innings belonged to Levi. The 24-year-old — scorer of the fastest T20I century — spared no bowler in his offensive. He began by picking boundaries off Doug Bollinger and the assault reached a crescendo when Ravindra Jadeja came on to bowl. Chennai’s only purchase in the latest auction was taken for 16 in his first and only over of the match.

Levi struck another six in the next over – against R. Ashwin – and a third maximum in the over that followed – bowled by Dwayne Bravo – to reach his half-century in 34 balls on IPL debut. He was out as he went after Bravo again, but by that time his part of the bargain was struck, and then some. At the other end, Sachin Tendulkar was not quite a mute witness to the carnage. The maestro had faced just 12 balls to Levi’s 35, but had made them count, none in a more telling manner than the one hurled by Albie Morkel which was dismissed for an exquisite cover-driven six.

Rohit Sharma departed for a blob and soon after Tendulkar retired hurt on 16, after Bollinger rapped him on the fingers, leaving Mumbai 41 to win in 11 overs. Like in many IPL home games, Dhoni sensed an opening and looked to his slower bowlers to pry it open further. He deployed a slip for Shadab Jakati and packed the ring with fielders – but the ask for Mumbai did not require any recourse to the fancy and the target was achieved without drama, as Ambati Rayudu and James Franklin stuck to the task at hand.

Earlier, Mumbai let CSK begin their campaign in the customary way – batting first on a relaid wicket the nature of which would be unearthed only once an innings was completed. Taking strike first turned out to be Chennai’s last hurrah as the batsmen struggled from the get go. Rayudu swooped down from extra cover and curtailed Faf du Plessis’ debut with a direct hit in the first over, and the full house in attendance had to wait 20 deliveries for the first boundary – an inside-out biff by Suresh Raina, all the way over long-off.

Murali Vijay continued his wretched form, scratching around before whipping James Franklin into the hands of mid-wicket. Then began the lone bright phase for Chennai, as IPL gargantuan Suresh Raina got together with Dwayne Bravo. The two added 37 in four overs, taking Chennai to the brink of a revival, before Pragyan Ojha dismissed both in successive overs.

Raina was done in by a wider offering (delivered as Ojha spotted the southpaw stepping out) that was slashed to sweeper cover. In his next over, Bravo walloped the left-arm spinner, but a marginal impairment in timing caused the ball to come to rest prematurely in the shovel-like hands of Pollard at long-on.

Chennai lost its last eight wickets for just 37 runs, as batsmen arrived and departed with the frequency of a Metro train. Two more run-outs followed – accounting for Dhoni and R. Ashwin – and really the cascade of wickets had more to do with Chennai playing straight into the hands of the field than with anything special on the part of the bowlers.