PORT ELIZABETH: Chennai Super Kings are on course for a semifinal spot in the Indian Premier League (IPL), scoring a comprehensive seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians at St George's Park here on Saturday.
Chasing 148, Super Kings romped home with five balls remaining guided by Matthew Hayden's unbeaten 60 and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 23 not out. Suresh Raina (20) and Subramaniam Badrinath (22) played effective cameos.
Super Kings are in the second spot in the standings, having won seven matches for 15 points with two games at hand.
Mumbai Indians' hopes of making the semifinal berth were dashed as they remained in seventh position with 11 points and one match to go.
Mumbai bowled well to restrict Super Kings to 56 for two at the halfway stage, but Hayden played patiently to bide his time and accelerated in the final overs.
Parthiv Patel was trapped lbw by an express-fast Lasith Malinga with the first ball of the innings.
Suresh Raina played a quickfire innings with two fours and two sixes in just 12-balls.
He hit Dhawal Kulkarni for a six and a four after Malinga dropped a difficult chance off Hayden at third man.
Hayden made the maxiumum of the life and anchored the innings well. The otherwise explosive batsmen was so quiet that he stroked his first boundary in the 13th over.
He allowed Raina a free-hand, who hit another six off Bravo before getting out in the same over.
Badrinath (22) then hit two fours of Kulkarni and kept the scoreboard moving through singles.
Hayden overcame the sluggish first half to cut loose after Badrinath's exit. He added
87 runs with Dhoni, who hit two fours in his 22-ball stay.
They needed 27 off the last three overs but the two set batsmen had no trouble in knocking off the runs.
Earlier, Mumbai innings once again revolved around Jean Paul Duminy (62 off 54 balls) who has been their most consistent performer in the tournament.
Mumbai lost Dwayne Bravo with seven runs on the board, but Sanath Jayasuriya shone for a while with a 17-ball 30 that included three fours and two sixes. However, his knock was cut short by Sudeep Tyagi.
Abhishek Nayar gave a late thrust to the innings with a 27-ball 33.