A clinical 6 wicket win over Mumbai Indians has helped Chennai Super Kings pick up two vital points and move to the second spot in the IPL 2023 standings.
Devon Conway once again top-scored for Chennai with 44 while Ruturaj Gaikwad was amazing in his 16-ball 30 to set the base for CSK's chase of 140 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday.
This was Chennai first win over Mumbai at home after 4,777 days, making it just the second time since 2014 that they recorded two league stage wins over the visitors.
After the loss, Mumbai Indians continue to remain at the sixth spot in the standings with 10 points from 10 games.
MS Dhoni Won Toss, Elected to Bowl
Chennai left Mumbai in tatters in the powerplay itself, starting from Deshpande hitting Cameron Green's top of off-stump with a short-of-a-length delivery which didn't bounce much in the second over.
Chahar dealt Mumbai a double blow in the third over -- Ishan Kishan got a top edge on a heave and was caught at mid-on, while Rohit Sharma, walking out to bat at No.3, fell for a three-ball duck after mistiming a scoop to backward point.
Suryakumar Yadav and Wadhera steadied the Mumbai innings by hitting five boundaries from overs 5-8. While Yadav was fluent in his pull and drive, Wadhera was beautiful in timing his cut and drive through the off-side against the spinners.
But the 55-run partnership came to an end in the 11th over when Yadav tried to back away and cut off Jadeja. But the ball was flatter and quicker, as Jadeja got it to hit the middle stump.
Wadhera marched forward to sweep Maheesh Theekshana for four, followed by dancing down the pitch to loft over long-on for six. After reaching his maiden IPL fifty in 46 balls with a brace off Jadeja, he slog-swept, pulled and swept the left-arm spinner for three boundaries.
But Pathirana dismissed Wadhera for 64 in the 18th over with a fiery 145kph yorker which kept low to go past the attempted flick and hit the base of the middle stump with great accuracy.
Mumbai didn't get the desired finishing flourish as Tim David holed out to long-off against Deshpande while Arshad Khan sliced straight to deep point and Tristan Stubbs mistimed a loft to running cover off Pathirana, as five runs and two wickets came off the final over.
Chennai's Chase
Chasing 140, Gaikwad began by lofting and flicking Cameron Green for two fours in the opening over. His onslaught continued in the third over when he effortlessly pulled twice for sixes while punching and driving for two fours off Arshad Khan.
From the other end, Conway got up and running with an exquisite leg glance off Jofra Archer for four and feasted on the pacer's deliveries by whipping through mid-wicket and cutting hard through backward point for a brace of fours in the fourth over.
Piyush Chawla struck on his very first ball in the fifth over as Gaikwad went for the pull, but ended up skying in the air, giving the wicketkeeper ample time to take the catch. Ajinkya Rahane timed his aerial shots very well for four and six against Chawla, but the leg-spinner had the last laugh by trapping the right-handed batter lbw with a googly in the ninth over.
With spinners becoming hard to hit, Conway and Ambati Rayudu resorted to strike-rotation till the latter danced down the pitch to smack part-time spin of Tristan Stubbs for a mighty six over wide long-on, breaking a 24-ball no-boundary spree.
But on the very next ball, Stubbs changed his angle and had Rayudu slicing a quicker delivery straight to short third man. Shivam Dube added impetus to the chase by pulling and slog-sweeping debutant spinner Raghav Goyal for a brace of sixes in the 14th over.
Though Conway was trapped lbw by Akash Madhwal, Dube swivelled Arshad over fine leg for six, before MS Dhoni calmly finished off the chase with 14 balls to spare via a pull through backward square leg, much to the delight of the yellow-wearing vociferous crowd.
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