Raina, Dhoni star in Chennai triumph

Ms Dhoni has added another feather to his captaincy hat. It was he who started the turnaround against a formidable Mumbai Indians attack, his deputy Suresh Raina capitalised on two dropped catches to score a crucial fifty, and Chennai Super Kings defended with aggression, smartness and flair to win the third IPL. Chennai were struggling at 68 for 3 after 12 overs when Dhoni got into the act: 100 runs were added in the last eight, and Raina scored 44 at a strike-rate of 200 after the first drop. The win concluded a fourth consecutive one-sided knockout in the tournament.

Ever since R Ashwin started the defence with a maiden over, Mumbai never really threatened Chennai. Sachin Tendulkar, playing with a split webbing, played his least fluent innings of the tournament, scoring a laboured 48 off 45. Mumbai tried some strange moves: promotions for Abhishek Nayar and Harbhajan Singh bombed, and even at the fall of the fifth wicket, with 69 required off 31, Kieron Pollard was not the man making his way out of the dugout.

There were no problems with tactics for Chennai: they went with the old-fashioned approach of keeping wickets in hand, never mind the slow start, and with M Vijay breaking free, had reached a perfectly acceptable 40 for no loss at the end of Powerplay. Dilhara Fernando brought Mumbai back, removing Vijay with his split-finger slower ball in the eighth over. Pollard ended Matthew Hayden's 31-ball 17-run misery, and S Badrinath holed out in the 12th over.

Dhoni left alone the first ball he faced, was beaten by a legcutter after that, was almost bowled the next ball, and worked a single to end that testing Fernando over. Mumbai can file for lack of sufficient warning for what was to come next. The first ball Dhoni faced from Pollard he charged down and hit him into the second tier - with one hand. The next ball Pollard ran in and didn't let go, stares were exchanged, and Tendulkar rushed in to apologise to the batsman: it was the second time Pollard had done this in his 2.1 overs. Dhoni's bat spoke emphatically, though, with a punch for four to end the over.