Ladies and gentlemen, the great Indian entertainment show is back and how! Last night we witnessed the commencement of the second half of IPL 2021, where the eternal rivals – Mumbai Indians & Chennai Super Kings, faced each other, and as usual, they did not fail to deliver on this front! In a low scoring (by IPL standard) clash between these two titans, the match proved to be highly competitive and unpredictable for most of the part.
Chennai Super Kings Squad:
Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood
Mumbai Indians Squad:
Quinton de Kock (wk), Ishan Kishan, Anmolpreet Singh, Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard (c), Saurabh Tiwary, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
The match saw the absence of Mumbai Indian’s regular captain Rohit Sharma and key all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Keiron Pollard was handed the captainship and was looking forward to repeating their earlier fixture of this season. Chennai Super Kings won the toss, and their captain MS Dhoni chose the batting for the first innings.
1st Innings- Ruturaj Saves the day for Chennai
Before the match started, it looked like MI might be missing Rohit’s services. But when the scoreboard showed four wickets down for 24 runs, the MI squad showed why they are known to come out strong, whatever may be the situation. The Boult and Milne duo more than deliver in their first spells with completely breaking Chennai’s experienced batting line-up. With the dependables like Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina and the team captain Dhoni returning to the pavilion before the end of the first powerplay, Chennai were staring at the probable lowest score of their IPL history.
But the young stalwart Ruturaj Gaikwad saved the team from the serious embarrassment and helped them produce a defendable total. Giving out the highest score of his IPL career, the opener scored 88 runs and some support from Jadeja in the middle overs. A classic Dwayne Bravo show in the last overs carried the team over the score of 150. The final scorecard for the first innings saw CSK putting up 156 runs at the loss of six wickets.
2nd Innings- MI missed Rohit & Hardik
After giving the CSK batters (barring Ruturaj Gaikwad) a run for their money, it was looking like MI might repeat their previous result against CSK. And the openers de Kock & the debutant Anmolpreet Singh were looking dangerous, supporting the initial thought. But the go-to man of Chennai for past years when in need of quick wickets, Deepak Chahar made sure to balance out the odds for his team by grabbing these two openers.
Excluding Saurabh Tiwari, who notched a not out calm 50 at the expense of 40 balls, MI batters failed to make an impact yesterday, and that saw their downfall. Even the MI’s home legend and captain for the night had to return quickly after a slow-paced 15 runs. Pollard’s countryman but the opponent of IPL, Bravo, made sure that the tail of MI won’t wiggle much and sealed the deal for CSK, winning the match by a ‘big’ margin of 20 runs for this ‘low’ scoring affair.
Conclusion
If not for the Ruturaj Gaikwad, the match might have had the name of Mumbai Indians as the winner of yesterday’s fixture. But, with clear intent and rising for the team when required, CSK has found a solid name in this season in the form of Ruturaj.
The Mumbai Indians, with the initial brilliance provided by their bowlers, know where their faults lay yesterday. The absence of Rohit and Hardik was visible for the team, and they’ll be indeed looking forward to their return.