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Home  » Cricket » Turning Point: Ashwin's, Chahal's Spin

Turning Point: Ashwin's, Chahal's Spin

By NORMA ASTRID GODINHO
April 03, 2022 09:11 IST
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IMAGE: Rajasthan Royals' Yuzvendra Chahal finished with 2 for 26 against the Mumbai Indians at the D Y Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday, April 2, 2022. Photograph: BCCI

Rajasthan Royals set Mumbai Indians a massive 194 for victory, but with a strong batting line-up and a good batting pitch, breaching the total was never impossible for MI.

Although Rohit Sharma and Anmolpreet Singh were sent back to the dugout early, Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma helped the MI innings flourish.

Pacer Navdeep Saini in particular got a lot of stick as Mumbai raced to 94 for 2 off 10 overs.

Ishan got a reprieve in the 11th when Yashasvi Jaiswal nearly grabbed onto a screamer of a catch. Kishan, who got to his fifty in the 13th over, kept the big runs coming before he was caught spectacularly in the same over by Saini who took a tumble and hit his head while completing a low catch.

Once Kishan was out for 54, the onus was on the set Tilak and the experienced Kieron Pollard to see the team through.

19-year-old Tilak went on to hit his maiden half ton -- the youngest in IPL history to hit a 50.

IMAGE: Senior pro Ravichandran Ashwin gives teenager Tilak Varma a send-off after dismissing him for 61. Photograph: BCCI

The teenager went on to hit a couple of big shots before Ravichandran Ashwin's delivery crashed into his off stump as he tried to reverse sweep.

The next over, Yuzvendra Chahal's twin strikes saw the backs of Tim David and Dan Sams off successive balls.

Chahal missed his hat-trick when Karun Nair put down Murugan Ashwin at first slip, but the job was more or less done with 57 needed off four overs.

On another day, Pollard would have taken the game by the scruff of the neck and turned it around, but it was not to be on Saturday.

With 50 needed off 18, he smashed a six and a four in the 18 over and although Prasidh Krishna went for 10 in the 19th, with 28 needed off the final over, Saini bowled well as Pollard struggled to get the ball past the infield before holing out for 22 off the last ball of the innings.

With Ashwin taking out Tilak Varma in the 15th over and Chahal's twin strikes in Tim David and Dan Sams in the very next over, the pressure totally fell on proven Pollard.

The burly Trinidadian and Murugan found the odd boundary, but with 28 needed off 6, Pollard just couldn't connect and although he got a four in the over, he failed to find the big ones and MI fell short by 23 runs.

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NORMA ASTRID GODINHO

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