CSK flatten Mumbai Indians to climb to second spot

CHENNAI Super Kings registered a comfortable 6-wicket win – only their second victory at the M Chidambaram Stadium against Mumbai Indians – to move to the second spot on the points table. An all-round bowling display, led by Matheesha Pathirana’s 3 for 15 – restricted the visitors to 139 for 8, a total that was surpassed with 14 balls to spare.

Mumbai Indians’ decision to change the batting order – pushing Rohit Sharma to No 3 and opening with Ishan Kishan and Cameron Green – didn’t quite pay off. Green was cleaned up by Tushar Deshpande in the second over, while Deepak Chahar had Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan dismissed. While Kishan top edged a swipe to mid on, Rohit misdirected a lap shot towards short short third, while attempting to outwit MS Dhoni’s plans of coming up to the stumps. The visitors were left reeling at 33 for 3 at the end of the six overs, a position from which they failed to amply recover.

Mathesha Pathirana celebrates the wicket of Tristan Stubbs• (BCCI)

On the other hand, CSK dominated with the bat in the Powerplay. Ruturaj Gaikwad may have failed to put away a half-tracker by Piyush Chawla, leading to his dismissal, but before that, his attack against Green and Arshad Khan, en route his 16-ball 30, had laid a strong foundation as the hosts powered their way to 50 for 1 in the Powerplay.

Chennai Super Kings didn’t let the early pressure ease off on Mumbai Indians. Even as Suryakumar Yadav and Nehal Wadhera tried to rebuild MI’s innings, runs weren’t easy to come by. Both Ravindra Jadeja and Maheesh Theekshana bowled fast and flat to not allow the batters to break free. The duo added 55 runs in 46 balls before Suryakumar had the top of his offstump hit by Jadeja.

Theekshana keeps control in the death
Even as the stand between Suryakumar and Wadhera had steadied MI and provided a good launchpad for its big-hitting lower-middle order, none of them could make an impact. Tristan Stubbs, who had come in place of the ill Tilak Verma, struggled to get his timing right, while Tim David, Arshad Khan and Jofra Archer barely spent ample time.

Wadhera, who was also struggling a bit for timing early on, did get a move on towards the latter end of his innings but his 51-ball 64 could only help MI to respectable score, if not competitive. Pathirana bowled superbly in the death overs – cleaning up Wadhera and having Stubbs and Arshad caught (the latter was dropped at long off by Shivam Dube a ball before that).

Following a 50-run Powerplay, CSK were in little hurry to get to the target. Devon Conway and Ajinkya Rahane stitched a steady 35-run stand in 29 balls before the latter was trapped leg-before by Chawla’s googly. However, by the time he was dismissed the contest was almost dead.

Mumbai Indians did managed to strike twice late in the contest, with the dismissals of Ambati Rayudu and Conway, but that was to have no impact to the eventual result. Shivam Dube pulled Arshad’s bouncer for a six and Dhoni nudged a length delivery by the left-arm pacer towards the leg side to take the hosts over the line. (Cricbuzz)