Kieron Pollard's blitz derails Chennai in final

Kieron Pollard's quickfire 60 from 32 balls helped Mumbai beat Chennai by 23 runs in the final of the Indian T20 tournament on Sunday.

Mumbai got off to a weak start with the bat and lost three wickets in the first four overs. Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayadu dropped anchor and attempted to rebuild the innings. The pair added 36 runs for the fourth wicket before Karthik fell in the 10th over.

His dismissal brought Pollard to the crease. Pollard made his intentions clear from the start and smashed Chris Morris for a four off the first ball he faced.

Both Pollard and Rayudu regularly found the boundary in their bid to post a defendable total. Pollard switched gears in the 15th over and clobbered Ravindra Jadeja for two boundaries. Chennai though managed to break the partnership an over later when Dwayne Bravo dismissed Rayudu.

The wicket didn't affect Mumbai's momentum as Pollard and Harbhajan Singh took on Chennai's bowlers. Harbhajan dispatched Bravo for three boundaries in the 18th over but fell off the fifth ball. Morris and Bravo kept Pollard away from strike in the last two overs, picking up three wickets between them.

Pollard managed to get strike only for the last two balls of the innings but clubbed both for sixes to help Mumbai post 148.

Chennai failed to impress with the bat and had lost six wickets for 39 runs by the eighth over. Captain MS Dhoni top scored with 63 but he failed to steer his side to their third title.

"This is the moment we were waiting for," Pollard said after the match. "It was a tough game for us. We wanted this one and played really hard. It's been a hard road but it is a total team effort. There's no better time to play your best cricket than against one of the best teams."

Sharma said that he knew it would be difficult for Chennai to chase 149 as the pitch was slower in the second innings. "We knew it would be a tough game and was not going to be easy but we fought really hard and I'm happy with the result. We knew batting second it's not going to be easy."