Smith anchors Mumbai to victory over Kolkata

Dwayne Smith clobbered 62 from 45 balls to help Mumbai beat defending champions Kolkata by five wickets on Wednesday.

Chasing a total of 160, Mumbai were off to a shaky start after losing Sachin Tendulkar - who celebrated his 40th birthday - for two. Three overs later they lost Dinesh Karthik for seven.

Despite the early loss, Smith stepped on the gas. He smashed two consecutive sixes off Iqbal Abdulla, in his second over, and one more in the left-arm spinner's third to mark his dominance. The Caribbean batsman also targeted Sachithra Senanayake in the eighth over by cracking him for a boundary and a six.

Smith hit five sixes and three fours en route to his half-century that came off just 34 balls. His quickfire innings ended when he was caught by Brendon McCullum off Sunil Narine in the 11th over, but the damage had already been done.

Following his departure, Rohit and Pollard took Mumbai closer to win with their 50-run stand for the fourth wicket and then Harbhajan Singh and Ambati Rayudu struck boundaries in the last over to seal Mumbai's win.

"My message to myself was to go there, get in and do what I want; I knew they won't be able to stop me that easily," Smith said. "I am the kind of guy who believes in doing what I know best. Today I just thought I had to give my team a good start, and I did it."

"I did not target any bowler. My plan was to get as much as possible from any bowler bowling to me, apart from Sunil Narine, because he was the one who was taking the wickets for them."

"Eventually I gave away my wicket to him which was disappointing. I should have batted on and tried to get the side home."

MS Dhoni's quickfire 67 from 37 balls helped Chennai beat Hyderabad by five wickets, and go second in the points table, on Wednesday.

Chennai went about chasing Hyderabad's total of 160 clinically with Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay putting on a 65-run opening partnership.

Dhoni came to the crease in the tenth over, after the dismissal of Hussey, and began cautiously. He had a lucky break an over later when Amit Mishra dropped him. He went nearly three overs without a boundary as Hyderabad's bowlers applied the pressure.

The floodgates opened in the 13th over, as Dhoni cut loose, he first spanked Darren Sammy - who was playing his first game of the season - for two fours and then Ishant Sharma for two more.

Now in full-flight, Dhoni took on, Hyderabad's trump card, Dale Steyn and smashed him for consecutive sixes in the 17th over. He repeated the dose, in the 19th over again and hit Steyn for a six and a four and left his side with 15 to get from the last over.

It took the Chennai captain just four balls to put the finishing touches as he walloped Ashish Reddy for a six and two fours to win with two balls to spare.

"The performance has been good but as we go to the latter stages the bowlers must realise that yorkers are a recipe that can't go wrong," Dhoni said. "Our bowlers didn't do a very good job. We started well but the last two overs we gave around 40 runs."