Chennai Super Kings (CSK), irrespective of the venue, the conditions, the long batting line-up of the Mumbai Indians, pulled off what is rare at the Wankhede Stadium, defending a total, especially in the night games as the Men in Yellow won by 20 runs on Sunday, April 14. Former Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma smashed his second IPL century but no other batter supported him from the other end. Matheesha Pathirana was the difference between the two sides in the end as he took four wickets to break the back of the chase for the home team.
At 130/2 in the 14th over, Mumbai Indians were on course to chase down 207 runs with two set batters in, however, the wicket of Tilak Varma proved to be the turning point as the strike dried up for Rohit and the incoming batters kept hitting out to the fielders on the boundary and eventually the Mumbai Indians fell short. Captain Hardik Pandya struggled to get going, Tim David hit a couple of big sixes but he too got out as the pressure kept mounting on Rohgit and the required run rate kept rising to 14, 15 and 17.
Rohit did get a few boundaries at the end but it just wasn’t enough was probably too late and the Mumbai Indians will be disappointed at how the chase panned out ultimately. Rohit and Ishan Kishan got off the blocks rather quickly and Mumbai Indians had a sizeable powerplay of 63 runs at over 10 runs per over.
However, Pathirana’s first over on return helped CSK put breaks on Mumbai’s scoring. Pathirana not only broke the opening partnership but also got the huge wicket of Suryakumar Yadav, the No 1 T20 batter in the world. Tilak and Rohit did well to stitch a quick 60-run partnership but it all came downhill from there on for the five-time champions.
More to follow…