Chennai lift IPL trophy

Chasing 169, the Mumbai innings was a disjointed affair, with Sachin Tendulkar scoring 48 off 45 balls up front and Pollard lashing 27 off 10 balls at the death. But no one can understand why the big-hitting West Indian was dropped down the order to number eight.

Tendulkar shrugged off the early loss of Shikhar Dhawan, who could not handle Doug Bollinger's extra bounce and pace, adding 66 for the second wicket with Abhishek Nayar.

But Nayar and Tendulkar had several misunderstandings when it came to the running between the wickets and it was no surprise when Nayar was run out for a run-a-ball 27.

Mumbai were then 67 for two in the 12th over, needing 102 off 52 balls, a required run-rate of over 12 an over. But Mumbai inexplicably then sent Harbhajan Singh, who was trapped lbw for a single by Suresh Raina, plus Saurabh Tiwary (0) and JP Duminy (6) in ahead of Pollard.

Tendulkar looked in control of the run-chase, but he then checked a lofted drive off impressive left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati and was caught at long-off.

Duminy seems to have recaptured some of his best form in the IPL, but he struggled to get the spinners away and was eventually caught for six off seven balls when Jakati pulled off one of the better catches of this IPL on the deep midwicket boundary off Muttiah Muralitharan.

Pollard came to the crease with 55 needed off three overs and the match suddenly veered Mumbai's way as he hammered three fours and two sixes in quick succession.

Pollard was hitting the ball to all parts of the stadium in a glorious cameo that was never allowed enough time to win the game and it was Morkel who cut short the entertainment in a brilliant penultimate over that cost just six runs and augurs very well for South Africa's ICC World Twenty20 campaign.

Morkel is the highest wicket-taker in twenty20 cricket worldwide and he finished with fine figures of one for 20 in three overs, showing he will be one of South Africa's key threats in the Caribbean.

Muralitharan also showed his class as he took one for 17 in his four overs, while Bollinger bowled his first two overs for just five runs before Pollard made a mess of his figures.

Jakati claimed two for 12 in two key overs between the 13th and 16th overs, while off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin conceded just 24 runs in his four overs and it will be interesting to see where his career takes him.

Earlier, poor bowling and fielding at the death by the Mumbai Indians allowed the Chennai Super Kings to post a challenging 168 for five.

Chennai, having won the toss and elected to bat, were going badly on 68 for three after 12 overs, but Raina feasted on the bowling as he blazed a brilliant 57 not out off 35 balls.

Mumbai had two chances to dismiss Raina - on 13 and 28 - but on both occasions the fielders failed to gobble routine high catches.

The left-handed Raina took full advantage of his good fortune as he purred to a 24-ball half-century that finally provided some acceleration to a stuttering Super Kings innings.

Chennai struggled initially against excellent bowling by seamers Lasith Malinga, Zaheer Khan and Dilhara Fernando, and off-spinner Harbhajan, on a pitch that offered minute movement.

Matthew Hayden received the benefit of the doubt on a couple of lbw appeals against Harbhajan, but the wicket of Murali Vijay was the first to fall despite the obvious lack of form of the big Australian left-hander.

Vijay was caught on the boundary off Fernando for 26 and, after Hayden fell to Pollard for 17 off 31 balls, the Sri Lankan seamer dealt another blow to the Super Kings by having Subramaniam Badrinath (14) caught off a well-directed lifter.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni played second fiddle to Raina, scoring 22 as 72 runs were added for the fourth wicket off just 35 balls.

One had to doff one's cap to Raina, who continued to show amazing consistency in the IPL, being the only man to score more than 400 runs in each of the three tournaments. He was unstoppable once he was in full flow, scoring 37 runs off 11 balls as he went from 13 to his fifty.

Morkel powered a six and a four to keep the momentum going with 15 off six balls and, even though Chennai stalled briefly as Malinga bowled three dot balls to start the final over, they have still posted an imposing total, the highest in an IPL final.

Fernando ended with the best figures, taking two for 23 in his four overs, while Harbhajan had an impressive economy rate of 7.50.