The Chennai Super Kings put in a thoroughly professional performance, as they always do, to dump the Mumbai Indians out of IPL 2014 with a convincing win in the Eliminator at the Brabourne Stadium.
Asked to bat first in the IPL playoffs Eliminator, MI could only managed 173 for eight on a beauty of a batting wicket, with CSK, thanks to nice unbeaten knocks from Suresh Raina and David Hussey, easily hauling down the target in 18.4 overs.
MI captain Rohit Sharma was understandably a disappointed man, especially after the manner in which they fought their way into the playoffs, only to see it end rather tamely.
"We batted well till the 15th-16th over, but 170 was a good enough target," Rohit said. "We would have liked some more but we really played well and I have a lot of pride in this side and how long we've come in this tournament. This just wasn't our day.
"We showed a lot of character after losing the first five games [in the UAE]. Coming back to India and performing like that was incredible. I didn't have to do too much, we were in that momentum after our last win and we wanted to carry it through to this game.
"But unfortunately CSK were the better team today and that's what it is. We've got some work to do and hopefully we'll come back bigger and stronger next year."
For MS Dhoni and CSK it is another big performance in the playoffs, and next up is the Kings XI Punjab in Qualifier 2 on Friday.
"I think the bowlers did a really good job, it was a very good wicket to bat on," Dhoni said. "Ashish [Nehra] and Ishwar [Pandey] moved the ball around a bit. In the middle overs, the spinners bowled well. I think, 180-185 was a par score on a good track, with a fast outfield and not big boundaries.
"The target was just a bit under par, but we needed to score the runs. The experience, especially of David Hussey came quite good in the end."
Man of the match Suresh Raina will hope to continue his good form against KXIP, who will know they will have to be at their absolute best to stop this CSK side.
"We executed the bowing plan really well," Raina said. "And then the batsmen, all of them did their jobs. I knew I had to bat till the last over. The wicket was really good, ball was coming on nicely. Huss was batting well as well and we were running between the wickets well too. We knew if we batted till the last over, we would win comfortably and we did that."
Watch the CSK vs MI Eliminator Highlights HERE, HERE or HERE.
