In a situation where every game has become crucial for them, captain Rohit Sharma made sure Mumbai Indians stayed afloat in the tournament as the defending champions defeated Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets in Pune on Saturday, 28 April.
From needing 42 off 23 to just 5 off the last over, the skipper along with Hardik Pandya helped Mumbai chase CSK’s total of 169 with 8 wickets in hand and two balls remaining. With this win, MI registered their second win in seven matches, and moved to the sixth place in the points table.
Rohit Sharma played a captain's knock with a 33-ball unbeaten 56 to complete the runcase after Evin Lewis (47 off 43) and Suryakumar Yadav (44) added 69 runs for the opening wicket.
Rohit shared 59 runs with Lewis for the second wicket before adding another 42 off 21 balls with Hardik Pandya to take the team home.
Chennai Super Kings’ Innings
Put into bat, Ambati Rayudu got Chennai off to a flyer after opening his innings with a six off McClenaghan in the third ball. His partner Shane Watson, however, couldn't stay long as his attempted slog sweep off spinner Krunal landed on the safe hands of Mayank Markande at square leg.
Suresh Raina (75* off 47 balls) then joined Rayudu and the duo blasted a six each to accumulate 15 runs off the over as CSK scored 39-1 in 5 overs. The Mumbaikar then sent the ball soaring over the ropes and hit a four to take his team across the 50-mark in the Powerplay overs.
After his 35-ball 46-run knock, Rayudu was sent packing by Krunal in the 12th over when he tried to clear the ropes with a sweep shot but ended up hitting straight to Cutting at deep midwicket.
Skipper Dhoni (26 off 21 balls) then joined Raina in the middle as CSK crossed the 100-mark in the 13th over bowled by Bumrah, who gave just one run.
In the 15th over, Dhoni smashed Hardik for back-to-back boundaries and then slammed Markande for an inside-out shot across the cover boundaries before depositing him over long-on.
Bumrah then came back for his second spell and Raina sent him across the short fine leg boundary and then flicked another one for another four to complete his half-century.
McClenaghan returned to remove Dhoni, who ended up giving an easy catch to Evin Lewis at deep cover as CSK slipped to 143-3 in 17.1 overs. One ball later, Dwayne Bravo was also sent packing with Markande taking the catch at point.
Raina then smashed Bumrah over deep midwicket to take CSK across the 150-mark. Sam Billing also tried to score big but ended up hitting straight to cutting at long-on. Eventually, Raina ended the innings with a six off the last ball.
Mitchell McClenaghan (2/26) and Krunal Pandya (2/32) were the pick of the bowlers for Mumbai, while Hardik Pandya (1/39) also scalped one wicket.
Mumbai Indians’ Innings
Chasing 170 to win, Yadav and Lewis gave Mumbai a good start as they scored 50-0 in the first six overs.
But Harbhajan Singh and Shane Watson then bowled a tight over each to put pressure on the Mumbai Indians and it resulted in the departure of Yadav, who tried to pull Harbhajan over deep midwicket but a brilliant catch by Ravindra Jadeja ended his innings.
Lewis then smashed two sixes off Imran Tahir to pick up 16 runs in the next over and then sent Dwayne Bravo for a boundary to take the team across the 100-mark.
In the 14th over, skipper Rohit Sharma joined the party and produced a one-handed six over long-off and then followed it up with sweep six over short fine leg off Watson.
However, Mumbai found it difficult to get boundaries and the mounting pressure saw Lewis top-edging a slower ball from Bravo as Mumbai lost their second wicket.
Needing 42 runs from 24 balls, Hardik joined Rohit as the duo narrowed the target down to 22 runs off the last two overs after the newman blasted a six off Watson and a sloppy fielding at the boundary line earned Mumbai a four.
Rohit finally blasted as many as four boundaries off the 19th over bowled by Shardul Thakur en route to his fifty as Mumbai needed just five off the last over. Hardik finally hit the winning runs
(With inputs from PTI)
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