IPL 2023, CSK vs MI: Bowlers help Chennai rise to 2nd spot; their NRR improves marginally to 0.409
IPL 2023, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) vs Mumbai Indians (MI): Matheesha Pathirana's 3-14, Nehal Wadhera's 64 and Deepak Chahar-Tushar Deshpande's combined 4-44 are top performances. CSK beat Mumbai Indians and move to 2nd place in points table.
Brief Scores: CSK 140/4 (Conway 44, Ruturaj 30, Chawla 2/25) beat MI 139/8 (Wadhera 64, Pathirana 3/15, Chahar 2/18) by 6 wickets
Player of the Match: Matheesha Pathirana (3/15)
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) locked horns with Mumbai Indians (MI) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday. Mumbai have an upper hand over Chennai with 20 wins in 35 games; they also won their last five games at the Chidambaram Stadium against the Super Kings.
A win over MI in Chepauk after 4777 days takes CSK to the second position
CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on winning the toss decided to bowl first under overcast conditions. Mumbai Indians added Tristan Stubbs in place of injured Tilak Verma and handed debut cap to Raghav Goyal while CSK went with an unchanged eleven.
Put into bat first, Mumbai Indians found themselves under early trouble with just 34/3 in the powerplay before Suryakumar Yadav and Nehal Wadhera steadied the ship taking them to 64/3 at the halfway mark. The 54-run fifth wicket stand between Wadhera and Tristan Stubbs carried them to 93/4 in 15 overs before some powerful batting shouldered Mumbai Indians to 139/8 in their allotted 20 overs.
Chasing a low total, the dynamic opening stand between Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway provided CSK a valuable start with 55/1 in the powerplay before Ajinkya Rahane gave Conway company to reach 81/2 in 10 overs. Some big hits from Shivam Dube shouldered the ‘Whistle Phodu’ army to 123/3 in 15 overs. Finally, they chased down this low score by six wickets with 14 balls to spare.
Read More: IPL 2023, PBKS vs MI: Ishan, Surya power MI to crucial victory over Punjab; MI move to 6th place
Talking point: Rohit Sharma’s poor form a major concern for MI
One of the major concerns for Mumbai Indians has been the poor form of their captain and opener Rohit Sharma who in this season has thumped just 184 runs in nine games at an average of 20.44 and strike rate of 129.58. In his last four outings, Rohit Sharma has managed just five runs including couple of back-to-back ducks.
Rohit even demoted himself in this game at number three but the luck didn’t change and he again got out for a three-ball duck. With the league stage reaching the business end, Rohit Sharma needs to step up for his franchise as a batter.
Let’s scan the top three performances from the game between CSK and MI in Chennai