By B. Shrikant

Mumbai, May 13 (IANS): Pitches for T20 matches usually favour the batters as the organisers believe that the fans want to see the ball being smacked around for sixes.

But occasionally, the pitch does have something to offer for the bowlers, and that is when they need to grab their chance and make it count.

Mumbai Indians' Australian pacers Daniel Sams, Jasprit Bumrah, and Riley Meredith made good use of the swing and bounce offered by the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium for Match 59 of IPL 2022 to bowl out Chennai Super Kings for 97 and set up their five-wicket win.

Sams claimed 3/16, Meredith bagged 2/27 and Bumrah took 1/12 off three overs as Mumbai Indians were reduced to 29/5 in the sixth over from where they never recovered, despite an unbeaten 36 by skipper MS Dhoni.

Sams, the 29-year-old allrounder from New South Wales, Australia, bowled brilliantly, used the conditions to the fullest, bowled hard length, moved the ball around, and kept the batters under pressure as he gave Mumbai Indians a good start.

Sams struck two vital blows in the first over of the match, getting out Devon Conway -- a fortuitous wicket as the ball was going down the leg-side and there was no DRS available for the CSK batter to utilise.

The second wicket was far better executed as Moeen Ali was undone by a length delivery that bounced a bit, forcing the batter to hurry and mis-time a shot, the resultant easy catch was pouched by Hrithik Shokeen at short-midwicket.

Chennai Super Kings were reduced to 2/2 at the end of the first over.

Jasprit Bumrah compounded their troubles when he trapped Robin Uthappa lbw during a superb wicket maiden in which he beat the batter thrice with deliveries that left the batter, moving away. The fourth one went straight and trapped him in front of the wicket.

The third wicket for Sams too was a lucky one as Ruturaj Gaikwad chased a delivery bowled on the leg stump and went down further, offering a faint edge to keeper Ishan Kishan.

Meredith claimed the important wickets of Ambati Rayudu, cutting the batter into two with a brilliant delivery that took an inside edge as the CSK batter tried to defend. Shivam Dube tried to hit out a short one on the middle and wicketkeeper Kishan completed a superb diving catch.

Left-arm spinner Kumar Karthikeya claimed two wickets, including the vital one of Dwayne Bravo with Tilak Varma plucking out a brilliant one-handed catch which virtually ended CSK's fight bar barring a couple of big hits by Dhoni.

CSK ended with a paltry score and though their bowlers, particularly Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh, raised hopes by reducing Mumbai Indians to 33/4, some sensible batting by Tilak Varma (34 not out) and Hrithik Shokeen (18) saw Mumbai Indians home as they added 49 runs for the fifth wicket partnership.

Tim David (16 not out) blasted two sixes in an over as Mumbai reached 103/5 to win the match by five wickets.