Thanks to a thrilling victory against arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians extended their unbeaten run to five matches in a row. In a perfect Twenty20 match, which saw the pendulum swinging in favour of both the teams, Mumbai Indians gained an upper hand, despite missing Lasith Malinga’s services.

The six-wicket victory, achieved with four balls to spare, elevated Mumbai Indians into the fourth position in the points table, and kept them in the hunt for qualifying for the Playoffs, for the sixth year in succession. The Mumbai Indians also broke the Chennai Super King’s unbeaten run of ten matches at Chepauk. The result also meant that with just over a week remaining in the league stage, no team is assured of a place in the Playoffs, with the table still being wide open.

Chasing a target of 159 on a slow MA Chidambaram Stadium, Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons gave Mumbai Indians a perfect start. Thanks to the sweetly timed strokes that flew off the willows of the left-right hand combination, the Mumbai Indians had raced to 84 for no loss, at halfway stage. However, the two overs saw three wickets falling for just two runs, pegging the Mumbai Indians back.

R Ashwin, marking a comeback after missing the last three games due to a finger injury, saw the back of both Parthiv and Simmons in four balls, with both the openers holing out in the deep. And Kieron Pollard then succumbed to fellow Trinidadian Dwayne Bravo’s direct hit, running in from square point.

Suddenly, the wickets started doing all the tricks, and skipper Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu found scoring difficult. The next four overs saw no boundary being scored, with Rohit being lucky to have been dropped by Faf du Plessis on the boundary line. With 51 required off the last four overs, Rayudu broke the shackles with two sixes in Purple Cap holder, Ashish Nehra’s over.

But Dwayne Bravo swung the game in Chennai Super King’s favour by earning the prized scalp of Rohit in the 18th over. With Rayudu and Hardik Pandya at the crease, Mumbai Indians required 30 runs off the last two overs. And the duo went after left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, to virtually seal the match.

The over fetched 25 runs, thanks to Pandya’s three sixes in the first four balls, the target was within a touching distance for MI. And Rayudu’s six, off the last ball meant the game was all but won. Rayudu eventually completed the formalities with a boundary off the second ball of Bravo’s last over.

Earlier in the evening, Mumbai Indian’s bowling attack did an impressive job to restrict the Super Kings for a sub-160 total. Had it not been for Negi’s late charge, Mumbai Indians could well have been chasing a sub-150 target.

Malinga’s absence due to the inability of Sri Lankan players to play in Chennai due to political tension; gave Marchant de Lange his maiden MI cap. And the youngster combined well with on-song Mitchell McClenaghan and seasoned Vinay Kumar, to pull the brakes on a fancied Super Kings line-up.

Though Brendon McCullum got off to a trademark quickfire start, Vinay got rid of him in the fifth over. And once Suresh Raina and Dwayne Smith were dismissed in four balls, MI were right on top. MS Dhoni and Negi’s 54-run stand, off just 28 balls, gave Super Kings a decent total to defend. In the end, that wasn’t enough, against a solid unit like Mumbai Indians.