After six games, Mumbai Indians finally won a few key moments on Saturday to post an eight-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings to get its second win of the season.
Chasing a sub-par total of 170, a good start by Suryakumar Yadav laid the foundation for Evin Lewis and skipper Rohit Sharma to finally find some good form to take the defending champions home.
MI got to the end of the powerplay with 50 for no loss but CSK pulled back in the next four overs giving 21 runs for one wicket. Lewis struggled against Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir playing out 13 dot balls off the first 25 he faced.
SCORECARD AND BALL-BY-BALL HIGHLIGHTS
But in the 11th over, Lewis got two sixes off Tahir, first over cover and then a half-tracker that went over long on. This eased the pressure off Sharma who got going with two sixes off Shane Watson. With 22 required off the last two, Sharma then picked four boundaries in the 19th over off Shardul Thakur as he remained unbeaten on 56 (33b 6x4, 2x6).
Put in to bat, CSK was cruising at 91 for one after 10 overs before Sharma’s inspired decision to give Krunal Pandya another over when Ambati Rayudu and Suresh Raina were looking good after Watson fell cheaply.
Krunal got Rayudu out and MI got a period of four overs where they conceded only 14 runs that took the wind out CSK’s sails. Rayudu, who started off his innings by charging Mitchell McClenaghan did not allow the MI bowlers to settle as he kept picking his boundaries in his knock off 46.
CSK often depends a lot on Raina anchoring the innings at number three and the left-hander started off positively as he top-scored with an unbeaten knock off 75 off just 47 ball (6x4, 4x6).
He started off hitting Krunal immediately over mid-wicket for a six to get his innings going and was able to clear the boundaries over long on and midwicket whenever the bowlers erred in length.
MI got two quiet overs off Krunal and Markande after the powerplay before Rayudu and Raina went after Ben Cutting who replaced Mustafizur in the side for 14 runs off his solitary over. Raina then picked Markande for a four over covers and six over long on in the 10th over.
Following a slow start, M.S. Dhoni looked set to get a move on after a few boundaries but in the 18th over, McClenaghan gave only four runs and picked two wickets. At the end, Raina did well to pick 22 off the last two to help CSK post 169, but it was always 20 runs short.
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