After Harbhajan Singh led the bowling attack from the front, picking up two wickets for a measly 13 runs, Malinga took charge as the Chargers lost the plot early in their innings after being asked to take first strike on a wicket offering good bounce.
James Franklin too picked up two wickets in one over while Rudra Pratap Singh (1) and Munaf Patel (1) also did their bit in an excellent display by MI with the ball after having conceded over 200 runs to the Delhi Daredevils in their previous match two days ago.
After a decent opening stand of 37 in 33 balls between Shikhar Dhawan, who made 29 in 32 balls with three fours, and Parthiv Patel (19 in 18 balls), the visiting team's innings crumbled at 66 for six by the end of the 13th over before recovering to reach 100.
Jean Paul Duminy, who remained unbeaten on 25, was the only batsman other than the openers to get into double figures in a batting order that did not have regular captain Kumar Sangakkara who opted out of the eleven to leave his duties to Cameron White.
MI, without the injured Kieron Pollard, also fielded much better and took some excellent catches, Rohit Sharma's attempt at backward point to catch a spiralling down sphere to send back Ashish Reddy off Munaf Patel being the pick.