Harbhajan Singh hit a few lusty blows, the highlight among which was a blistering square cut that shot through the formidable CSK offside cordon off Mohit Sharma's bowling. But two balls later, a miscued carve over the offside landed straight into Ravindra Jadeja's hands brought the "turbanator"'s 21-ball innings to a close with a valuable 24 runs. Kieron Pollard entered with the score at 57/4.
After 8 overs, when the first strategic time-out was taken, the MI scorecard read a shaky 44/3.
The in-form Ashish Nehra struck in the very first over to trap Parthiv Patel in front. The Mumbai Indians lost two more in a canter thanks to a prowling Faf du Plessis, who caught two marquee players in Lendl Simmons and Corey Anderson, within the 4th over.
The yet-winless Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat first against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede in Mumbai on Friday. While CSK have maintained the same XI from their last match, MI have rested Shreyas Gopal, Unmukt Chand and an injured Aaron Finch and brought in Lendl Simmons, Ambati Rayudu and Harbhajan Singh.
At the toss, CSK captain M.S. Dhoni said: "We wanted to bowl first. It has been good start for us, there were few concerns for us during the 1st game but we covered it well in the 2nd game. We are fortunate that we have got support everywhere, this is our first game playing outside Chennai."
