Raina-Dhoni power Super Kings past 160 in IPL final

Mumbai, Apr 25: Power hitting by Suresh Raina and M S Dhoni at the end of their innings took Chennai Super Kings to a respectable total of 168 against the Mumbai Indians in the final of the DLF IPL at the DY Patil Stadium here tonight.
Raina, who was let off twice, made full use of the chances he got and hit three sixes in his fast-paced innings of 57 off 35 balls.
While the skipper Dhoni (22 off 15) provided the much needed impetus to the Chennai’s innings when they were once tottering at 3/67.
His 72-run partnership with Raina gave Albie Morkel (15 off 6) a perfect launch pad at the end.
Dilhara Fernando, who guised every Chennai batsmen with his split-finger slow deliveries, contributed with two wickets for the home side after Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat first.
Earlier, Harbhajan Singh started well against his old nemesis Mathew Hayden by bowling quicker deliveries and trying to trap the Aussie in front of the wickets and he was almost successful if umpire Rudi Koertzen could not miss the straight chance.
The burly left-hander broke the shackles by dancing down the track, hitting the off spinner for a six over the mid-wicket. Murali Vijay followed his opening partner with a free flow swing of the bat and ball crossed the boundary for a six.
Vijay looked in terrific flow from the outset and timed the ball as good as he could but his bravado came to a premature end when he was foxed by Fernando’s slow delivery and holed out to Saurabh Tiwary at deep square leg for 26 off 19.
The change of pace again did the trick for Mumbai Indians and Kieron Pollard when Hayden (17 off 31) lobbed the ball high in the air with Ambati Rayudu taking a simple catch behind the wickets.
S Badrinath (14 off 9) after hitting two fours was caught by Malinga at fine leg off Fernando.
MS Dhoni’s started his innings with a one-handed six that travelled 98 meters and followed it up with a boundary in the same over of Pollard.
Raina, who was a silent spectator at the other end up to that point, opened his hands and collected 17 runs in the fifteenth over of the innings and accumulated 19 in the next over.
Dhoni perished in the 18th over but gave his side a perfect platform to take score over 160.