JOHANNESBURG: Lasith Malinga’s five-wicket haul and Dinesh Karthik’s whirlwind 74 went in vain as Chennai Super Kings eked out a narrow six-run win over Mumbai Indians in an inconsequential Group ‘B’ match of the Champions League Twenty20 here on Saturday night.

The match was rendered a dead-rubber after Highveld Lions notched up a five-wicket victory over Yorkshire earlier in the day to become the second team from Group ‘B’ to reach the semi-finals, thus knocking out both Chennai and Mumbai Indians.

However, both the IPL teams ensured that the spectators at the New Wanderers Stadium don’t go back disappointed as they enthralled them with an edge-of-the-seat thriller which went down to the wires.

Sent into bat, CSK openers du Plessis (52) and Murali Vijay (39) initially lifted the spirit of the spectators with an entertaining 86-run stand in just 49 balls, studded with 10 fours and three sixes.

However, Malinga spoilt their party as he notched up a five-wicket haul in his four overs. The Sri Lankan pacer dismissed du Plessis, Suresh Raina (8), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (35), Albie Morkel (0) and Wriddiman Saha (5) to help Mumbai restrict Chennai to 173-8.

Karthik then led the Mumbai run-chase with a scintillating 45-ball 74, which was studded with four fours and six sixes, and almost took them to the brink of victory. Pollard also blasted a 17-ball 31 with the help of one four and three sixes but Mumbai still fell short by six runs in the end.The credit went to Man-of-the-Match Ben Hilfenhaus (2-14) who led the bowling attack brilliantly. He was supported well by Albie Morkel (2-28) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-47) and part-timer Faf du Plessis (1-3).

Veteran Sachin Tendulkar’s poor run continued and he was the first to be dismissed by Ben Hilfenhaus in the fourth over for just two. In the next over, Morkel dismissed the other opener Smith (13) as Mumbai slumped to 21-2.

Rohit Sharma (32) and Karthik then tried to resurrect the innings with the former picking up three sixes but with the Chennai bowlers bowling in tandem, the run-rate kept creeping up all the time.

Earlier, Chennai went on to a brilliant start but Pragyan Ojha brought the first break through, cleaning up Vijay after the Tamil Nadu batsman danced down the pitch in pursuit of another big hit. Malinga then struck twice in two balls to reduce them to 101 for three in 10.5 overs.

Dhoni (35), who survived a run-out chance early in his innings, provided a much-needed spark with an entertaining 19-ball 35, laced with three fours and two sixes, before becoming a victim of Malinga.

Once the captain was back in the pavillion, rest of the batsmen tried to accelerate and even though they perished in regular intervals, they did enough to help Chennai put up a challenging score on board.

Summarised scores: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS 173-8 in 20 overs (F. du Plessis 52, M. Vijay 39, M.S. Dhoni 35; S.L. Malinga 5-32); MUMBAI INDIANS 167-7 in 20 overs (K.D. Karthik 74, R.G. Sharma 32, K.A. Pollard 31; B.W. Hilfenhaus 2-14, J.A. Morkel 2-28, R.A. Jadeja 2-47).—Agencies