The law of averages finally caught up with Mumbai Indians and it came in the crucial final as Chennai Super Kings tamed Mumbai Indians in its own den to win the title in DLF IPL 3 at the DY Patil Stadium here on Sunday.

Chennai, which lost the final of the inaugural title to Rajasthan Royals, staged a spirited rally to beat Mumbai Indians by 22 runs. Mumbai was left ruing the chances they missed in the match. The decision to promote Abhishek Nayar and Harbhajan ahead of Tiwary and Rayadu was debatable and Tendulkar missed a trick by delaying the entry of his trump card Kiren Pollard during the chase. There were no heroics this time from Harbhajan who was promoted ahead of Tiwary and Rayadu. But Harbhajan missed a straight ball from Raina and was caught plump in front.

Despite having five stiches in his hand, Tendulkar played a vintage knock but couldn’t finish things off like he wanted. He was dismissed when trying to force the pace. Suresh Raina picked up a beauty of a catch to dismiss Saurabh Tiwary. Duminy flattered to deceive. Mumbai was teetering at the edge when Pollard waded into Bollinger and smashed him for 22 runs to raise the slim hopes of the homeside. However soon after, Rayadu was caught in a horrendous mix up with Pollard and sacrificed his wicket. Dhoni had the last laugh as he stationed Hayden a little deep and the batsman obliged by smashing Morkel straight to the fielder and with it went Mumbai’s hopes. It could be said that Mumbai ‘dropped’ the trophy as Raina, who made the only half-century in the final, was reprieved twice and the left-hander made the home-side pay dearly for their mistakes. His whirlwind knock took the winds out of Mumbai’s sails and along with captain Dhoni turned the match on its head. Raina’s assault saw Chennai side garner an amazing 100 runs in the last eight overs. The Mumbai medium pace attack which was disciplined at the start lost its nerve in the death overs as Raina sent it to the cleaners. Though Raina made the significant contribution, it was Dhoni who started the revival with a superb six off Pollard and scored a quickfire 22. Morkel flayed 15 off six deliveries as Chennai changed gears.

The slow pitch favoured the spin dominated Chennai attack. R.Ashwin started the trend by bowling a maiden. Shikar Dhewan found Bollinger’s pace too hot and tamely edged a catch to the wicket-keeper. Abhishek Nayar walked in and struggled to force the ball off square. Murali turned the ball appreciably and nearly snared Abhishek but Hayden spilled a regulation catch at slip. Abhishek survived a few run-out chances and finally went for a non-existent run and was dimissed. But the left-hander had consumed too many deliveries which in end made things rather difficult for rest of the batsmen.