Super Kings deserved to win

A dejected Mumbai Indians skipper Harbhajan Singh said it all when he complimented Chennai Super Kings for ‘playing like champions' after his team lost the Indian Premier league play-off game by 38 runs here on Wednesday. "Of course, I am disappointed that we lost, but we cannot change the result. The Super Kings played like champions and deserved to win," said Harbhajan after the game. Rollicking stand "Dhoni and Bravo took the game away from us in the last four overs (of the Super Kings innings), and there was not much we could do," he added, referring to the rollicking unfinished stand of 74 runs off 29 balls between Dhoni and Bravo for the sixth wicket.Dhoni, adjudged Man of the Match for his unbeaten 51 off 20 balls, pointed out that it was the 94-run stand between Mike Hussey and Subramaniam Badrinath for the second wicket that set up the Super Kings innings. "Hussey and Badri gave us the platform with their partnership. Badri is our silent hero," said Dhoni. Over the past week, Dhoni said his team, after completing their league stage engagements, watched the other matches whose results directly influenced their entry into the play-offs. "We did follow the matches, but it was beyond our control. It was always there at the back of our mind that we could still qualify and the results of other matches went our way. So we are here," said Dhoni referring to the agonising week when the Super Kings' fate hinged on the results of three matches. The Super Kings eventually tied on points with Royal Challengers Bangalore, but nosed ahead on better Net Run Rate. Chennai coach Stephen Fleming praised his captain's contribution. "Dhoni's blitzkrieg propelled us to get 75 runs in the last five overs, otherwise we would have ended up with 160-odd runs, which Mumbai Indians would have chased easily," Fleming said. Flair towards the end "We didn't play as well as we could have. But a bit of composure at the start of the innings and flair towards the end encourages us going into the next qualifying match against Delhi Daredevils at home." Fleming admitted that going back to Chennai and playing against Delhi in home conditions suited their style of play, but added that the team will have to repeat Wednesday's performance in the qualifier to make it to the final. "Repeating the same performance is not all that easy. We will work hard on that in the next 24 hours," he said. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians have been penalised for a slow over rate during their eliminator match against Chennai. Mumbai were assessed to be two overs behind the required rate after allowances were taken into consideration at the end of the match. As this was captain Harbhajan's second slow over rate offence in this year's IPL, he was fined $40,000, while each of the other 10 members of the playing XI were fined the lesser of $10,000 or 25 per cent of their match fees.