Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum made a mockery of the target of 184 set by Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday, combining for a 109-run opening stand in just 44 balls to help Chennai Super Kings to their third successive victory by six wickets and with 20 balls to spare in game 12 of the Indian Premier League 2015. Mumbai Indians, in search of their first win, had done well to post 183 for 7 courtesy Kieron Pollard's 30 ball 64 after being three down for just 12 runs, but the McCullum-Smith blitz proved too much for a flagging team. The CSK opening pair went hammer and tongs right from the word go, with McCullum targeting Lasith Malinga early to take 12 runs off his first over. Taking a cue, Smith joined in with a six and four off offspinner J Suchith, before more pain was inflicted on Malinga with four boundaries in his second over. Smith took a liking to young Suchith and hit the Karnataka spinner for 20 runs in his second over. It was not a case of bowlers bowling badly, rather two attacking batsmen playing inhibited cricket on a batting friendly track in the face of a stiff target. By the end of six overs, CSK had raced to 90 for no loss, the second highest score in the Powerplay in the IPL, with Smith reaching his 11th fifty off just 22 balls. McCullum (46 off 20 balls) was the first to go in the eighth over when he mistimed a hoist towards long-off straight in to the hands of Vinay Kumar off Harbhajan. Smith, after hitting his fourth six of the innings over midwicket, was caught moments later for 62 from 30 balls when he top-edged a slog sweep. The duo had set the perfect foundation for the batsmen to follow and despite losing Faf du Plessis (11) and MS Dhoni (3) cheaply, Suresh Raina took his team home comfortably. Raina, with the help of two sixes and four fours, got amongst the runs after two disappointing outings and remained uneaten on 43 off 29 balls. Earlier, a fine opening spell by Ashish Nehra (3-0-15-2) had Mumbai Indians under the pump early, but a crucial 75-run stand off just 32 balls between skipper Rohit Sharma (50 off 30 balls) and Pollard had brought them back in the game.
