Mitchell Johnson picked up two key wickets as his Mumbai Indians scored a 23-run win over Michael Hussey’s Chennai Super Kings in the IPL final at the Eden Gardens.
The Super Kings were unable to overcome the spot fixing controversy engulfing the team with skipper MS Dhoni’s defiant unbeaten 63 not nearly enough for the two-time champions.
After restricting Mumbai to a modest 148, the Super Kings crashed to be all out for 125 with Dhoni’s half-century proving too little too late.
Kieron Pollard was the star with the bat for Mumbai, the West Indian blasting three sixes and seven fours in a classy unbeaten 60 off just 32 balls.
The Super Kings, despite dealing with the upheaval of having one of their top officials arrested just two days earlier for alleged involvement in spot-fixing, would have been confident of reaching the target.
But their innings started disastrously with Hussey clean bowled second ball by Lasith Malinga for just one and then Suresh Raina out next ball for a duck.
The writing was on the wall when Johnson had S Badrinath caught next over, also for a duck, to leave the Kings reeling at 3-3.
Dwayne Bravo sparked a mini fightback before Johnson caught him off Rishi Dhawan’s bowling for 15 to leave the Kings in deep trouble at 4-35.
Johnson collected his second wicket when Murali Vijay was caught by Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma to give the Australian quick 2-19 from his four overs before Dhoni’s lone stand saved the Super Kings from complete embarrassment.
Mumbai nevertheless won comfortably even with Sachin Tendulkar missing the final injured to avenge their defeat to the Super Kings in the first qualifier last week.
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