Chennai: Lasith Malinga played the best innings of his Twenty20 career to seal a thrilling three-wicket victory for the depleted Mumbai Indians in their Champions League T20 opener against the Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Saturday.
With 11 runs needed in the last over, Malinga first hit a four on the second delivery and then took a single on the next ball of Doug Bollinger. Harbhajan Singh, too, joined the party and smashed a four at the
square leg boundary. Harbhajan then scored the winning run by nudging a single on the leg side.
Malinga (37 off 18 balls), along with stand-in skipper Harbhajan (19 off 20 balls), stitched an unbeaten 53-run partnership for the eighth wicket for the visitors. For Chennai, R Ashwin, Dwayne Bravo and Suresh Raina took two wickets each.
Chasing the 159-run target, Mumbai lost wickets at regular intervals. They were tottering at 106/7 in 15.2 overs when Malinga joined Harbhajan in the middle.
Mumbai lost half their side inside ten overs for 63 after Aiden Blizzard (28) and Davy Jacobs (18) gave them a good start.
Blizzard smashed a six and four fours in his quick 21-ball innings while putting on a 39-run opening stand with Jacobs, who hit three boundaries in his 15-ball knock.
Earlier, Mike Hussey scored a whirlwind 81 off 57 balls to help the defending champions post a competitive 158 for four against the under strength Mumbai side.
Hussey continued his good run of form and hit eight fours and three sixes in his blistering knock to set the platform for the Chennai total on a relatively slow MA Chidambaram pitch.
Hussey didn't get much support from the other end as players like Suresh Raina (18 off 17) and S Badrinath (16 off 21) got out cheaply. Captain MS Dhoni, however, remained unbeaten for a quickfire 22.
For Mumbai, young Assam pacer Abu Nechim was the most successful bowler with two wickets, while Malinga and Kieron Pollard snared a wicket each.
Harbhajan, who returned to competitive cricket on Saturday after recovering from his abdomen injury that he sustained in England recently, went for 32 runs in his four wicketless overs.
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