IMAGES from the IPL 2023 match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians played at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday
Rohit Sharma's barren run with the ba continued as Chennai Super Kings broke a 13-year-old home jinx against Mumbai Indians with an easy six-wicket victory in an IPL match, in Chennai on Saturday.
The Indian skipper's horrid run in IPL since last edition continued as he failed to trouble the scorer for the second match in succession with MI scoring a below par 139/8 against an inspired performance from the CSK pace and seam troika of Deepak Chahar (2/18 in 4 overs), man of the match Matheesha Pathirana (3/15 in 4 overs) and Tushar Deshpande (2/25 in 4 overs).
The chase was a cakewalk as Devon Conway (44 off 42 balls) played the role of anchor to perfection after Ruturaj Gaikwad's whirlwind 16-ball-30. The win was completed in 17.5 overs and CSK leapfrogged to second place behind Gujarat Titans in the points table.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored the winning runs much to the delight of the adoring crowd at Chepauk. The last time CSK won against MI at Chepauk was way back in 2010, even before India had won the ODI World Cup under Dhoni.
For MI, it was a bad loss as they stay in sixth place with 10 points from as many games and very little margin for error after this match.
But what will certainly both MI is their skipper's prolonged lean patch as 184 runs from 10 games with five scores of less than 10 and only two scores above 40 will set some panic in the ranks.
Not to forget, coming down the batting order at No. 3 didn't work as an indiscreet lap-scoop off Deepak Chahar didn't work at all for the skipper.
But no amount of praise will be enough for Pathirana, who literally bottled the MI batters during the death overs as he didn't concede a single boundary in his four-over spell. His fiery spell of 3/15 was instrumental in Mumbai finishing on a below-par 139/8 after they were put into bat.
A maiden IPL half-century by left-handed batter Nehal Wadhera (64 from 51 balls) rescued Mumbai after a horror start, as the visitors had lost three wickets by the third over.
For CSK, pacers Pathirana (3/15), Deepak Chahar (2/18) and Tushar Deshpande (2/24) did most of the damage, while spinner Ravindra Jadeja (1/37) dented MI's hopes as he bagged the big wicket of Suryakumar Yadav.
Pathirana in his four-over spell didn't concede a single boundary, while bowling 12 dot balls.
After opting to bowl, CSK bowlers left MI in disarray, reducing the opposition to 16/3 by the end of the third over.
Chahar picked up the wickets of Ishan Kishan (7) and MI skipper Rohit Sharma (0) while Tushar Deshpande provided the first breakthrough by removing the dangerous Cameron Green, getting him bowled for 6.
MI lost three wickets in space of 7 deliveries whilst scoring only 1 run and looked in deep trouble before Suryakumar Yadav (26) and Wadhera began the rescue act.
Surya and Wadhera added 55 runs in 7 overs and began to look more assured in the middle before Ravindra Jadeja fired a quicker one to dismiss the former.
Surya, who regained form in the previous game against Punjab Kings, held the key for MI after the early setbacks, and he looked to be guiding the team towards safety when Jadeja's faster one got the better of him.
Tim David, of whom much was expected, lasted just 4 balls, scoring two runs before being dismissed by Deshpande.
Pathirana, who seems to be getting better with every game, gave away 2 runs in the 18th over and 5 runs in the final over as CSK strangled Mumbai Indians with pace, for a change. The MI batters could not get away the slinger from Sri Lanka in a modest performance.
