The last time Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians met in the Pepsi Indian Premier League 2015, Chennai's openers made light work of a seemingly big target with a rapid century stand at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. On Friday (May 8), when the two sides met at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai, it was Mumbai's turn to turn the tables in similar fashion.

After restricting Chennai to 158 for 4, Mumbai got off to the perfect start as their openers shared an 84-run stand to set the perfect platform. The solid and quick starts given by Parthiv Patel (45 off 32) and Lendl Simmons (38 off 31) have been an important factor in Mumbai's turnaround in the season and Friday was no different. Their solid start was almost wasted by a middle-order collapse, but a late flourish by Ambati Rayudu (34 off 19) and Hardik Pandya (21 off 8) helped Mumbai to their fifth consecutive win.
ALSO SEE Full Scorecard

Knowing well that scoring would become difficult in the middle overs against the spinners, Parthiv and Simmons went after the pacers in the Power Play with some exquisite shots. Parthiv in particular was fluent in strokeplay and drove Ashish Nehra and Mohit Sharma beautifully through the off side every time they bowled full. And when they bowled short, he was quick to cut and pull to the boundary.

Simmons started relatively slower but shifted gears effortlessly in the fifth over, taking 15 runs off Nehra and bringing up Mumbai's 50 in just five overs. The Power Play yielded 61 runs without loss and the openers had some luck going their way as well. Parthiv was dropped on 15 by Pawan Negi off Nehra, while Simmons was lucky to survive an lbw appeal off Ravindra Jadeja on 31.
ALSO SEE Mumbai jump to 4th on points table

The openers had coasted along to 84 at the halfway mark, but just when it looked like they would cruise to the target, two overs of madness brought Chennai back in the game. Parthiv lofted the first ball of Ashwin's final over straight to long on and just two balls later, his partner followed him, slogging the offspinner to deep square leg.

Kieron Pollard got a promotion to No. 4, but fell to a sharp piece of fielding from his countryman Dwayne Bravo after facing just four balls. Suresh Raina had dropped Rohit Sharma at slip off Negi's bowling, but an alert Bravo ran in from point to catch Pollard short as they tried to steal a single. Mumbai had lost three wickets in the space of two overs and Dhoni quickly applied the squeeze with his spinners.
ALSO SEE First home loss for CSK in over 2 years

The equation suddenly looked a bit more daunting at 58 off 30 balls. Chennai had a chance to squeeze Mumbai further, but Faf du Plessis, surprisingly, dropped a sitter off Bravo at long off to give Rohit a reprieve on 13. Rohit couldn't make the most of the life and lofted Bravo to long on in his next over, but between that, Rayudu smashed two sixes off Nehra to get Mumbai within striking distance.

Mumbai still required 30 from the last two overs, but Nehra's off night (3-0-45-0) meant that Dhoni had to bowl Negi, the left-arm spinner, in the all important 19th over. Negi had played an important part in Chennai reaching 158, but, in six balls, his match turned into a nightmare. Hardik Pandya blasted three sixes down the ground and Rayudu ended the over with another straight six to plunder 25 runs. Bravo was left with a herculean task of defending five runs from the last over, and even the slimmest of chances was killed when Jadeja dropped Pandya off the first ball - the fourth drop by Chennai.
ALSO SEE Images from the match

Earlier, after choosing to bat first, Chennai's innings followed the same pattern as their last two matches at home. Brendon McCullum got off to a typically blazing start, but as has been the case in recent matches, failed to convert it into a substantial score. He launched his assault with a six over long on off Mitchell McClenaghan, got a reprieve when Harbhajan Singh dropped a sitter off J Suchith and then smashed three consecutive boundaries off Vinay Kumar, before holing out to deep midwicket going for his fourth four.

Raina, coming on the back of a half-century against Royal Challengers Bangalore, followed soon in similar fashion. Two balls after hitting Suchith for a boundary straight down the ground, Raina went for a heave over deep midwicket only to see Pandya run across to take a good catch.

At the other end was an unusually calm Dwayne Smith. The aggressive opener looked determined to play a long innings and even played out a maiden over off Marchant de Lange, brought in this game for Lasith Malinga, in the Power Play. Smith was not at his fluent best, but had done all the hard work, only to throw it away three balls after Raina's dismissal. He ran out of patience and slog-swept Harbhajan Singh to give Pandya his third catch at deep midwicket and fell for a 34-ball 27.

With the top three gone and a wobbly middle order to follow, Chennai were in a tricky position at 67 for 3 in 10 overs. Du Plessis and MS Dhoni consolidated and played out the spinners without further damage, before the former fell to a splendid leaping catch at short fine leg by Simmons off McClenaghan in the 16th over.

Chennai's innings badly needed momentum and a strong finish, and Negi provided exactly that. The diminutive left-hander, preferred over the likes of Bravo and Jadeja, took on Mumbai's foreign pacers successfully, crashing three boundaries off de Lange in the 17th over before lofting McClenaghan over long on in the next. Dhoni was nowhere near his powerful best, but hung around till the end for his 32-ball 39, while Negi smashed his way to 36 off 17 balls to help Chennai get close to 160.

Chennai had successfully defended two sub-150 totals in their previous two home matches, but were not third time lucky.