MS Dhoni CSK Mumbai Indians
CSK skipper MS Dhoni in a punishing mood during the IPL match against the Mumbai Indians at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, April 6Ron Gaunt/SPORTZPICS/IPL

MS Dhoni threatened to pull off the impossible, but Mumbai Indians held their nerve to pull off a nine-run victory over the Chennai Super Kings in another nail-biter of IPL 2013.

Needing 149 to win, after Kieron Pollard had given Mumbai hope with a blistering innings, CSK finished at 139 for nine, as Dhoni's exhilarating 26-ball 51 went for nought.

Mumbai picked up their first win of the campaign at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, after their narrow loss to RCB on Thursday, as CSK were left to ponder what might have been had Dhoni not lost his wicket in the first ball of the last over, while attempting to pull off an incredible comeback from a seemingly impossible situation.

It did not go according to plan for CSK at the top, as batsman after batsman threw away his wicket. The first to go was Murali Vijay, who went too far across his wicket to see his leg stump uprooted by Munaf Patel.

Suresh Raina followed suit quickly enough, while Mike Hussey was the third man out with the Australian, bogged down by some good bowling, falling prey to Harbhajan Singh.

Dwayne Bravo and Subramaniam Badrinath tried to steady the innings, but before you could blink CSK had their backs to the wall at 66 for five from 12 overs, with Pragyan Ojha ending with an impressive four-over spell of two for 16.

Enter MS Dhoni and his protégé Ravindra Jadeja. The dynamic duo threatened to pull off the impossible, with CSK needing well over ten runs an over.

Jadeja smacked a couple of boundaries, but one too many an expansive shot saw the left-hander see his stumps go for a toss off Patel's bowling.

R Ashwin is not known for his big hitting, and the limitation told as the bowler was caught at long-on by Pollard with Harbhajan picking up his second wicket.

CSK needed 40 runs from three overs, and as long as the best finisher in the game Dhoni was there the impossible was still possible.

Enter 18th over, with Dhoni taking centrestage, of course. First ball: a club over long-off for a maximum. Second ball: a swivel shot past short fine leg for four. Third ball: Pollard under pressure bowls a wide. Fourth ball: an elegant thump through offside. Fifth ball: a single, which brings new man Ben Laughlin on strike. Sixth ball: Laughlin plays-on for a golden duck. Seventh ball: Ankit Rajpoot plays out a dot ball, as Dhoni refuses a single.

So, CSK needed 23 runs from the last two overs, with Dhoni - the unstoppable machine - in the mood.

The penultimate over from Mitchell Johnson yielded 11 runs, which included a stunning six from MSD, which meant 12 runs from the last over.

But even the great man is fallible, as the first delivery from Munaf was sent towards midwicket by Dhoni (51, 26b, 5x4, 3x6), with Pollard taking a nice catch under pressure right on the boundary line.

The rest was easy as Munaf (three for 29) finished things off comfortably to seal a vital win.

In the first innings it was the Kieron Pollard show, as the brutal hitting of the West Indian rescued Mumbai from what would have otherwise been an embarrassingly low total.

The dream opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Rickey Ponting, after putting up a half-century partnership in their first match against RCB, failed at the second time of asking, as Sachin Tendulkar was given lbw off Dirk Nannes' bowling for a first ball duck - the Little Master, clearly not happy with the decision, showed some emotion not seen too often.

Ponting followed Tendulkar back to the pavilion soon after for six, as the Mumbai innings unravelled. Rohit Sharma, as usual, disappointed again as Dinesh Karthik played another good hand with a quickfire 25-ball 37.

However, once the wicketkeeper-batsman also lost his wicket along with Ambati Rayudu and Dwayne Smith, the score read 83 for six with Mumbai really staring at a total below hundred.

Pollard, though, had other plans as the Trinidadian unleashed a torrent of four fours and five sixes to take Mumbai to what proved to be a winning total of 148.