The Mumbai Indians have advanced to the final of the Indian Premier League with a 25-run victory over the Chennai Super Kings in the first qualifier at Wankhede Stadium.
The Super Kings finished top of the standings before the playoffs, but they will now have to beat the winner of the eliminator between Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals tomorrow in Pune if they are to make the final and set up a rematch with Mumbai.
The Indians won the toss, choosing to bat first, and they got off to a fine start as openers Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel put on a partnership of 90.
Patel was the first to fall for 35 before Simmons had his wicket taken by Ravindra Jadeja after scoring 65 off 51 balls for his fifth fifty of this year's IPL.
Simmons was the game's top scorer, but it was Kieron Pollard's late blast of 41 off just 17 that propelled Mumbai to 187-6 from their 20 overs.
Chennai's reply got off to a bad start, with Dwayne Smith falling for a duck in the first over as Lasith Malinga trapped him lbw.
Faf du Plessis (45) put on 40+ partnerships with both Michael Hussey (16) and Suresh Raina (25) to steady the Super Kings' innings, but once those three had been removed they tailed away and never looked like reaching the victory target.
In the end, 2013 champions Mumbai took all 10 wickets with an over to spare as Chennai were bowled out for 162.
Pascal Lemesre
