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Mumbai Indians are proving to be a big hurdle for Chennai Super Kings who suffered their third straight defeat in IPL 2019 at the hands of the Rohit-Sharma led side in Qualifier 1 in Chennai, May 7.
Mumbai have been unbeaten at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai for the last seven years and have now won their last five games at the venue.
A dominant Mumbai took control right from the start after CSK won the toss and elected to bat on a wicket which offered the spinners a lot of assistance from the first ball.
Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar made most of the conditions as he provided Mumbai the early breakthrough with the wicket of the in-form Faf du Plessis who cut it straight to point to perish for 6.
Suresh Raina had a close shave as he was beaten by a big turning delivery as Chahar conceded just 1 in his first over.
Jayant Yadav struck in the very next over; he had Raina caught and bowled for 5. Krunal Pandya continued Shane Watson's miserable run in IPL 2019; the Australian was caught at mid-on for 10 with CSK struggling on 32/3 in 6 overs at the end of the powerplay.
Murali Vijay (26) and Ambati Rayudu revived the CSK innings in the middle overs with some steady batting before Chahar struck again with Vijay's wicket to leave CSK in a mess.
Vijay was dragged out of his crease by a flighted delivery which turned big and Wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock completed an easy stumping in the 13th over.
Rohit used Chahar intelligently as M S Dhoni opted to play the leggie with caution in the 17th over, content to just collect 3 runs.
Chahar finished with wonderful figures of 2/14 in his 4 overs and despite Dhoni's late attack when he hit Lasith Malinga for back to back sixes in the 19th over, CSK finished on a below-par 131/4.
Suryakumar Yadav anchored Mumbai's run chase with a controlled 71 not out from 54 balls as the visitors romped home by 6 wickets with 9 balls to storm into Sunday's IPL final.