Chennai into Qualifier With Convincing Win

Mumbai: Suresh Raina butchered 54 off 32 balls and David Hussey's 29-ball 40 as CSK chase down 173 in Eliminator against Mumbai Indians at Brabourne Stadium on Wednesday.

CSK take on Kings XI Punjab in qualifier 2 at Wankhede Stadium on Friday.

Earlier, Lendl Simmons has been the lynchpin for Mumbai Indians' fortunes this season, and dictated terms once again where the opener's 44-ball 67 took them to 173 for 8, would be ruing as despite an opening stand of 76 they failed to find fifth gear towards the end, losing six wickets in the last four overs.

Hussey departed for 39 in a bid to force the scoring rate up in the 10th over, but Simmons found good company in last-match hero Corey Anderson.

The New Zealand allrounder found his range immediately as he did against Rajasthan Royals, and looked set for another blinder until a mistimed slog-sweep cut short his stay for 20.

Simmons carried on to reach his third fifty to go with the IPL's only century of the season, but his dismissal for 67 - Ravindra Jadeja's second wicket - robbed MI off the late surge they looked for.

Rohit Sharma (20) followed in the next before before Ashish Nehra (2 for 34) returned to remove Kieron Pollard (14) and Aditya Tare (0) and Mohit Sharma (3 for 42) delivered a two-wicket final over to spruce up CSK's bowling figures.

Earlier, CSK have won the toss and have opted to field.

MI brought back Pravenn Kumar in for Shreyas Gopal. CSK make a couple of changes -- Brendon McCullum comes in for Mithun Manhas, Ishwar Pandey replaces Samual Badree.

Teams:

Mumbai: Lendl Simmons, Michael Hussey, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma (Capt.), Corey Anderson, Kieron Pollard, Aditya Tare (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Jasprit Bumrah

Chennai: Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, MS Dhoni (Capt. & wk), David Hussey, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Ashish Nehra

Brief scores
Mumbai Indians - 173/8 (Simmons 67, Hussey 39, Mohit Sharma 3-42)
Chennai Super Kings -176/3 (Raina 54*, Hussey 40*, du Plessis 35)
Result - Chennai Super Kings won by 7 wickets

Scores	Upcoming	Results
South Africa vs Pakistan - 3rd ODI 4th Test - Australia v India - December 26-30, 23:30 GMT 1st Test - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan - December 26-30, 07:30 GMT 3rd ODI - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan at Harare Afghanistan won by 8 wickets (with 139 balls remaining) 3rd T20I - West Indies v Bangladesh at St Vincent Bangladesh won by 80 runs

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