Dhoni-less Chennai Super Kings concede double to Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians completed a double against Chennai Super Kings this season albeit this time an indisposed Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not take the field for CSK. Suresh Raina, the acting captain, probably got it wrong before a ball was bowled when he chose to bowl after winning the toss. He expected dew in the later part of the match but did not bargain on the pitch misbehaving in the second half of the first inning. The end result was that Mumbai Indians batted when the surface was well behaved, at least till the first ten overs, and then bowled when the pitch was playing its tricks.


Mumbai Indians celebrate their win over Chennai Super Kings Source

Mumbai Indians lost Quinton de Kock Early when he top-edged a slower ball from Deepak Chahar and was caught by Ambati Rayadu who was keeping the wickets in the absence of Dhoni. Harbhajan Singh bowled his 4 overs at a stretch and conceded 23 runs without getting a wicket. At the halfway stage of their inning, Mumbai Indians were a decent 84 for 1 wicket. Mitchell Santner started getting turn on the pitch right from his first ball when he bowled the eleventh over. Santner got Evin Lewis to sky a delivery in his second and Dwayne Bravo took a comfortable catch at deep mid-wicket. Rohit Sharma reached his first IPL fifty of the season.

Krunal Pandya scored just 1 run before mistimed a sweep shot off Imran Tahir and was caught at deep mid-wicket. With the run rate slipping Rohit Sharma (67 off 48 balls) took after Imran Tahir hitting two boundaries and a six off his last over. Santner, however, got Sharma to play early to a tossed up delivery and Murali Vijay took a comfortable catch at long-on to finish with 2 wickets for 13 runs. At 122 for 4 wickets Mumbai Indians looked to be heading to a below par score Hardik Pandya plundered 17 runs off Dwayne Bravo in the final over to help his team reach 155 for 4 wickets. Given the nature of the pitch, it was a decent total if not a commanding one.


Rohit Sharma scored an important 67 off 48 balls for Mumbai Indians Source

Opening the inning for Chennai Super Kings, Shane Watson hit Malinga confident boundaries before flicking a ball equally confidently only to find Deepak Chahar at short fine leg who took a sharp catch. Suresh Raina played awkwardly to a Hardik Pandya short ball and gave Suryakumar Yadav a catch at point. And when bowled Ambati Rayadu with an arm ball in the fifth over Chennai Super Kings were in trouble at 34 for three inside the power play. Wickets continued to fall around Murali Vijay. While Kedar Jadhav played a Krunal Pandya delivery on to his stumps Roy Shrey mistimed Deepak Chahar’s ball to be caught at long-on.

At the halfway mark Chennai Super Kings were 60 for 5 needing to score at 9.6 runs per over to reach the target of 156 runs. Murali Vijay’s stay at the wicket, though he at 38 runs off 35 balls was the highest scorer for Chennai, was not a comfortable one either. He collected a few runs in the covers to mistimed shots off Lasith Malinga and was dropped at point by Ankul Roy. His inning ended when he cut slower Bumrah delivery straight to the point fielder. Other than Murali Vijay, none of the other five top-order batsmen managed to reach double figures. Dwayne Bravo and Mitchell Santner gave some resistance as they put on 33 runs for the seventh wicket but Chennai Super Kings were all out for 109 runs giving Mumbai Indians a massive 46 runs win.


Lasith Malinga got Shane Watson in the very first over of the Super Kings inning Source

Though Chennai Super Kings still lead the league table, their 46 run loss to Mumbai Indians has dented their net run rate substantially and could be a problem when it comes to finishing among the top two. Mumbai Indians are two points behind Chennai Super Kings but have one extra match in hand. They will be taking on Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday while CSK will come up against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday.

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