Live Cricket Score of Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings, Final, IPL 2015

As the dust settles on another frenetic season of Indian Premier League (IPL), the usual suspects - Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians - remain the last teams standing. Statistically, the two most successful sides (most number of matches won) in the tournament history, CSK and MI have pushed boundaries and unravelled newer dimensions of the T20 format with each passing encounter. The next chapter of this rivalry features a battle for the coveted IPL trophy, something these two sides have fought for twice before.

58 matches and 43 days after after the tournament opener, Mumbai Indians return to the grandest stage of Indian Cricket at the Eden Gardens, hoping to complete their remarkable turnaround - a run that has seen them upset the odds and become the first team to qualify for the final despite suffering losses in each of their first four games, including the opener in Kolkata.

Chennai Super Kings meanwhile, like only then can do, sauntered through the group stages and despite not being at their best, have found ways to win the matches that matter. Remarkably, they now find themselves in their sixth final in the tournament's eight-year history. However, since their win in 2011, they have lost two subsequent finals, including one against Mumbai Indians in 2013, and would dearly want to put one past their arch-rivals en route their third title.

In chase of 203, it was imperative for Chennai Super Kings to get off to a good start, but that was not be as the openers Michael Hussey and Dwayne Smith were contained by Mumbai Indians new ball bowlers, Lasith Malinga and Mitchell McClenaghan and CSK never were able to recover fro mthe slow start. The follow-up bowlers did exceedingly well to keep a leash on Dwayne Smith and even though he scored 57, he consumed 48 balls. Harbhajan Singh dealt the decisive blows by removing Smith and Raina and Malinga drove the final nail in CSK's coffin by removing MS Dhoni.

But the foundation of the win was laid by Rohit Sharma (50) and Lendl Simmons (68), who counter-attacked superbly combining for a 119-run stand for the second wicket before CSK hit back with the two Dwaynes - Bravo and Simth. But Ambati Rayudu (36*) and Kiern Pollard (36) hit some meaty blows in the end to help MI to a huge score, that in the end proved just too much for CSK.

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On what looked like a very dry Eden Gardens track, unchanged Chennai Super Kings opted to field first against Mumbai Indians, who are also unchanged.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Lendl Simmons, Parthiv Patel(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Hardik Pandya, Harbhajan Singh, Jagadeesha Suchith, Vinay Kumar, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell McClenaghan

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Dwayne Smith, Michael Hussey, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(w/c), Pawan Negi, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra

Captains speak:

MS Dhoni: 'It was good to play at home (against RCB in qualifier 2). We want to keep playing games, we had a good recovery yesterday. We didn't practice a lot, we have played a lot of cricket for the last two months. It is just a one-off game in the final, whoever performs better will become the champions. We will bowl first. The wicket look slightly sticky, but I don't think it will have a major impact. We have made no changes.'

Rohit Sharma: 'Ready to go. We had a very good preparation, it's pretty humid and we got a couple of days to prepare. It's a good hunting ground for me, but I want to do the best for my team. We won in 2013, it gives us another opportunity today. We would have batted first anyway. It's a big game and we would like to put the runs on the board first up. We are playing the same team.'

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Ashish Nehra started off the proceedings with the ball for Chennai Super Kings and it was Lendl Simmons who took the strike with Parthiv Patel at the non-striker's end and he gave away just a single in his first four balls, and the fifth produced a wicket courtesy the sensational Faf du Plessis. Parthiv got a thick outside edge and decided to take on du Plessis who was running in from mid-on and not many succeed in getting the better of the South African on the field. He hit the top of the stumps with the throw and Parthiv was well short of his crease.

In walked the skipper Rohit Sharma and after fending two back off length deliveries from Mohit Sharma he pounced on a short and wide delviery and hit it over the third man fence for a six. A four followed this time wide of the slips and the over was rounded off with another boundary past point. 16 runs came off the over as MI reached 17 for 1 after two overs.

The final of the Indian Premier League 2015 at the Eden Gardens between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings was kick started with National Anthem being played and it did feel a bit out of tune! Nevertheless, hope the match hits the right note.