IPL SRL | CSK vs MI Evaluation Chart - Mumbai’s team effort pours water on du Plessis’ fire power

Match Review

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Despite a couple of hiccups in the Powerplay, du Plessis’ batting made it possible for Chennai to dream big in their innings. After a long time, the South African finally found a stable partnership in Rayudu and the two together formed a 38-ball 46-run third-wicket stand. But Rahul Chahar came in and broke the potentially innings-defining stand and there was no recovery for Chennai since that. Their struggle in the middle overs cost them at least 30 runs in the total. 

Highs and Lows 

The low of this game, according to me, was Dwayne Bravo’s dismal performance in the middle overs of the chase that helped Mumbai gain advantage right away. In fact, the middle-overs performance was the biggest difference between the two teams. While Bravo did bag the wicket of Rohit, it didn’t amount to anything and the Windies bowler ended up conceding 57 runs in his four-over quota.

Rating Charts

The Chennai Super Kings lost one of their openers, Shane Watson, pretty early in the innings as Dhawal Kulkarni stunned the Aussie in the very first delivery of his spell. Following that, it was Faf du Plessis being absolutely at the top of his game, who went smashing Kulkarni right from the start, squeezing out 25 runs from the fourth over. And even though, Suresh Raina was also dismissed in the Powerplay that didn’t hurt the South African’s cause at all, who remained unswayed by the hiccups and took the team to a score of 54/2 at the end of the sixth over.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Indians side looked at ease while chasing 167 and both openers looked fully settled by the second over and both Sharma and de Kock fired against Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar. Imran Tahir’s entry in the fifth over was but a slow down for Mumbai as only three runs were managed in that over, followed by another good over for Chennai by Chahar wherein only 5 runs were conceded. Sharma and de Kock’s promising partnership survived the Powerplay, at the end of which the score was 53/0.

The Chennai Super Kings batsmen accumulated a total of 67 runs for the loss of two wickets between overs 7 and 15 and the credit was mostly into the account of du Plessis alone. After an eventful Powerplay, the next few overs into the middle-overs stage had no spark with spinners taking charge but that was so until Krunal Pandya’s 10th over when CSK smashed him for 12 runs. The control was back into Mumbai’s hands as Rahul Chahar dismissed set batsman Ambati Rayudu (24 off 24), who was involved in a 46-run partnership with Faf, in the 11th over. As du Plessis kept charging, Dhoni took his time to settle in but that wasn’t fruitful as the CSK captain was dismissed, by Coulter-Nile, just ahead of the death overs with a score of 121/4 on the board. 

On the other hand, following a smooth start by the openers, Mumbai batsmen carried it on in the middle overs as they fired Dwyane Bravo for 21 runs in the seventh over. Following that, the Mumbai openers smashed all spinners left, right and centre, bringing up the 100 in the 10th over. Chennai finally found their first breakthrough in the 11th over by Bravo, in the form of Rohit’s(59 off 33) dismissal, but that didn’t hurt the momentum at all even as de Kock was uprooted, by Kedar Jadhav, in the 13th over. Lynn and Suryakumar Yadav took no time in settling in the chase and squeezed out enough runs to put Mumbai, who were on 152/2 at the end of 15 overs, on top. 

The middle overs slowdown by the Mumbai bowlers gave them promise ahead of the death overs but the phase started with Rahul Chahar conceding a big 15-run over with du Plessis powering at his maximum. But what turned things around was the two-wicket 17th over by Nathan Coulter-Nile, who bagged a four-wicket haul. The Aussie pacer came in and uprooted the Chennai opener and also Kedar Jadhav was shown off within the next few deliveries. Chennai couldn’t recover from the hiccup and, as a result, only added 18 runs off the final three overs. Mumbai bowlers did equally well in containing the runs in the death overs as Chennai managed to post a total of 163/6.

On the other hand, CSK’s death bowling couldn’t have done anything less than a miracle to turn the game around as the major damage was done by Mumbai in the middle-overs itself. They only had 11 runs to defend with Mumbai having eight wickets in hand and both Chriss Lynn and Suryakumar Yadav looking in good touch. After a 10-run over by Bravo, to start the death overs, Mumbai chased down the total in the 17th over and won the game by eight wickets. 

While the end result of the game gave away how the game between the two biggest teams in the league went down. Mumbai Indians dominated through and through, with both bat and ball. The exceptional show of batting by Faf du Plessis was overpowered by Mumbai’s team effort and other than that there was no contest in it.