Chennai Super Kings beat Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets

Riding on yet another superb innings by Matthew Hayden (60), Chennai Super Kings assured themselves of a semifinal berth while ending Mumbai Indians' hopes with a seven-wicket triumph.

Set a target of 148 by Mumbai built largely on JP Duminy's knock of 62, Chennai once again relied heavily on Hayden to romp home with five balls to spare.Hayden was not his usual explosive self to start with but soon cut loose to help Chennai recover from a rather wobbly start.

The Australian opener, who is currently the leading run-scorer of the tournament, hit his fifth fifty of the event in the process. Hayden also shared a match-winning 87-run partnership with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (23).

The burly left-hander hit Harbhajan Singh for a massive six in the 17th over to complete his fifty. In fact, that one Harbhajan over turned the match in Chennai's favour as the temperamental off-spinner conceded 17 runs in it.After their bowlers did a fine job to restrict Mumbai to 147 for five, Chennai's chase didn't get off to a very good start as Parthiv Patel was dismissed off the very first ball by Lasith Malinga, who trapped the Indian leg-before.

Suresh Raina did not last long either and was brilliantly caught and bowled by Dwayne Bravo after a quickfire 20 off 12 balls that included two fours and an equal number of sixes. Earlier, electing to bat after winning the toss, Mumbai was dealt an early blow when Dwayne Bravo's (5) stumps were knocked off by Albie Morkel in the second over.

Sanath Jayasuriya then played out a blistering 30-run knock that came off just 17 balls. Sri Lanka's ageless warrior, who had been slightly off-colour with the bat, smashed three fours and a couple of sixes before top-edging a Sudeep Tyagi delivery to Suresh Raina at cover. Jayasuriya's dismissal slowed down Mumbai's scoring rate and the team went into the strategy break with 72 runs in their first 10 overs.

Mumbai suffered another setback after the break when skipper Sachin Tendulkar (11) holed out to Lakshmipathy Balaji at deep midwicket off a Raina delivery.It was left to J P Duminy, yet again, to steer the innings and he lived upto the task with a 54-ball 62.Of the bowlers, Muttiah Muralidaran was not among the wickets but bowled a miserly spell, giving away just 19 runs in his four overs.

Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Chennai Super Kings by two wickets

Bangalore Royal Challengers beat Chennai Super Kings by two wickets in their IPL match here on Thursday.

Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Chennai got to a good start after openers Matthew Hayden and Murali Vijay added 32 runs for the first wicket.Hayden once again played a fine knock and scored 60 runs off 38 balls with four fours and three sixes.

Apart from Hayden's inning, no other player could bat for a long time at the crease.
The only partnership of substance for Chennai was of 45 runs that came between Hayden and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the third wicket.Dhoni scored 18 runs off 20 balls with one four hit to the fence.Chennai Super Kings scored 129 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs.

For Royal Challengers, skipper Anil Kumble, R. Vinay Kumar and Jacques Kallis took two wickets each.Chasing a victory target of 130, Bangalore Royal Challengers got off to a poor start when opener Jacques Kallis was adjudged leg before wicket off Albie Morkel.Royal Challengers had lost three wickets at a total of 30 runs, but Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor took their team to a total of 86 runs. Kohli and Taylor added 56 runs for the fourth wicket.

Kohli scored 38 runs off 35 balls with four fours and two sixes. After Kohli's dismissal, Royal Challengers lost wickets on quick succession.R. Vinay Kumar took two runs on the third ball and hit the fourth delivery of the last over for four to register a thrilling victory.