Dubai: The gifted Ruturaj Gaikwad laid the foundation with an unbeaten 58-ball 88 before Dwayne Bravo led an excellent bowling display to power Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to a 20-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL here on Sunday.
Gaikwad batted through the innings to lift CSK from a precarious 7/3 to 156/6 as the IPL-14 resumed in the UAE after the first phase in India was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in May.
The late spark was provided by Bravo (23 off 8 balls) as CSK recovered from a disastrous start to put up a fighting total.
Chasing 157 on a pitch where the ball often stopped on the batsmen, MI too were off to a poor start as they slipped to 37/3 in the sixth over at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Both Quinton de Kock (17) and debutant Anmolpreet Singh (16) got out after getting starts, the bowler being medium-pacer Deepak Chahar on both occasions.
Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan too made their way back to the dugout in quick succession to leave MI in a spot at 58/4 in the 10th over.
Saurabh Tiwary (50 not out) and stand-in skipper Kieron Pollard tried to forge a partnership before Josh Hazlewood had the big-hitting Pollard trapped in front of the wicket.
CSK brightened their prospects further when Krunal Pandya was run out by the Bravo-M S Dhoni combination.
Tiwary and Adam Milne tried but could not succeed, with the latter getting out to the experienced Bravo in the second ball of the 20th over.
Bravo picked up 3/25 while Chahar had 2/19 as MI ended at 136/8.
Earlier, the 24-year-old Gaikwad added 81 runs for the fifth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja (26) to steady the ship after they lost skipper Dhoni in the sixth over with the score reading 24/4.
Gaikwad smashed nine fours and three sixes, while Bravo hit three maximums as CSK scored 112 runs in the back 10.
CSK lost four wickets in the power play, including the wickets of Dhoni and the team's seasoned run-getter Suresh Raina, as three top-order batsmen failed to open their account.