Mumbai Indians thrash CSK and climb to second place in the IPL table

Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by 46 runs at the MA Chidambaram stadium to move up to second place in the points table and take one step closer to qualifying for the IPL 2019 playoffs.

MI rode on captain Rohit Sharma's first fifty-plus score this season and superb bowling performances from Krunal Pandya and Lasith Malinga to defend 155 at Chepauk and register their second win over the defending champions this season.

This was also Chennai's first defeat on their home ground after six matches in this edition.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma got to his highest score this season as he smashed 67 off 48 balls to help Mumbai Indians post 155 for 4 after being put into bat by Suresh Raina, who suffered his second defeat while leading the Super Kings this season. 

Rohit was ably aided by Evin Lewis (32) as the duo added 75 runs for the second wicket which laid platform for the rest of the batsmen to score big in the slog overs.

But the MI innings lost momentum as Lewis and Krunal Pandya (1) departed in quick succession. Mitchell Santner (2 for 13) and Imran Tahir (1 for 37) kept the scoring rate in check with some intelligent spin bowling till the 17th over.

But Hardik Pandya's power-hitting against the fast bowlers Deepak Chahar and Dwayne Bravo in the final two overs propelled MI's score past the 150-run mark.

Hardik finished on 23 not out off 18 balls while Pollard remained unbeaten on 13 off 12 with the duo adding 33 runs for the fifth-wicket.

Chennai Super Kings, who were without MS Dhoni in this game due to an illness, faltered in their run chase from the word go as they lost wickets at regular intervals on a slow and turning wicket and were eventually bowled out for 109 17.4 overs, their lowest score at this ground in IPL history.

Shane Watson (8) departed in the very first over and was followed by stand-in skipper Suresh Raina (2) soon after. Ambati Raytudu (0) flopped once again and so did Kedar Jadhav (6) and Dhruv Shorey (5) which ultimately led to their downfall.

Murali Vijay (38), Dwayne Bravo (20) and Mitchell Santner (16 not out) tried their best to get CSK closer to the target but departed in the process.

Lasith Malinga finished as the pick of the Mumbai bowlers with 4 wickets for 37 runs in 3.4 overs while Jasprit Bumrah and Krunal Pandya bagged two wickets each. Hardik Pandya and Anukul Roy also picked up a wicket each for the visitors.

The win helped Mumbai reach 14 points from 11 matches and topple Delhi Capitals from the second position in the table. Chennai continue to lead with 16 points from 12 games and need one more victory to qualify for the playoffs.

Mumbai also consolidated their head-to-head record against the Super Kings with their 16th victory in 28 matches. CSK have won 12 of those encounters and have the worst record against Mumbai in the IPL. The three-time champions have not lost against Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk since 2010.