CHENNAI: A stellar performance from the fast bowlers led by Mathisha Pathirana helped Chennai Super Kings register a six-wicket win over arch-rivals Mumbai Indians with 14 balls to spare in an Indian Premier League T20 match here on Saturday. Pathirana took three wickets for just 15 runs in four overs as Mumbai could only manage 139 runs for eight wickets.
Chennai achieved the target for the loss of four wickets in 17.4 overs. With this win, the Chennai team reached the second spot with 13 points from 11 matches. Mumbai is in sixth place after this match with 10 points in 10 matches. While Pathirana bowled brilliantly in the last over, Deepak Chahar and Tushar Deshpande took three wickets in the first three overs to put Mumbai on the back foot. Both got two successes.
Ravindra Jadeja took one wicket. Devon Conway held one end for Chennai and played an inning of 44 runs in 42 balls. He got good support from Ruturaj Gaikwad (30 runs in 16 balls), Ajikya Rahane (21 runs in 17 balls), and Shivam Dubey (26 runs in 18 balls) from the other end. Piyush Chawla took two wickets for 25 runs in four overs for Mumbai. Tristan Stubbs and Akash Meghwal got one success each. Nehal Wadhera (64 off 51 balls) played his first half-century in the Indian Premier League for Mumbai. Wadhera hit eight fours and a six in his innings.
During this, he shared 55 runs for the fourth wicket with Suryakumar Yadav (26 runs in 22 balls) and 54 runs for the fifth wicket with Tristan Stubbs (20 runs in 21 balls). Chennai started chasing the target aggressively. Ruturaj Gaikwad hit two sixes and two fours against Arshad Khan in the third over after hitting two fours against Green in the opening over. From the other end, Devon Conway hit two fours against Jofra Archer in the fourth over.
Piyush Chawla, who came in to bowl in the fifth over, trapped Gaikwad in his spin on the very first ball and broke their partnership of 46 runs in 26 balls for the first wicket. Ajinkya Rahane (21 runs in 17 balls) came to the crease against Chawla while Conway hit a four against debutant Raghav Goyal. Rahane went leg after hitting Chawla for a six in the ninth over.
Ambati Rayudu failed once again, his 11-ball 12 being ended by Stubbs. Shivam Dubey, running in excellent rhythm, took two sixes in 14 overs against Raghav Goyal to bring the root team closer to the target. Devon Conway, batting with ease from one end, however, did not stay at the crease till the team won.
He was lbw to Meghwal’s ball. In the 18th over of the innings, Shivam Dubey hit a six, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni (two not out) gave the team victory by taking one run. Earlier, Cameron Green (six runs in four balls) started the innings in place of captain Rohit Sharma (zero) with Ishan Kishan (seven runs in nine balls) for Mumbai Indians, but the team’s decision did not work and one run All the three batsmen got out inside.
Deshpande bowled Green in the second over, while in the next over, Chahar showed the way to the pavilion to Ishan and Rohit. Rohit was dismissed without opening the account for a record 16th time in this league. Nehal Wadhera and Suryakumar Yadav batted carefully after the team lost three wickets for 14 runs. During this, Wadhera hit a four against Chahar and Suryakumar against Deshpande. Both completed the team’s half-century by adding 31 runs in the sixth to eighth over without taking any risk. In the eighth over, both the batsmen hit two fours against Moeen Ali.
Suryakumar completed his half-century partnership with Wadhera in the 10th over with a four against Teekshana but was bowled by Jadeja in the next over. Wadhera welcomed Teekshana with the first six of the match in the 16th over, while Tristan Stubbs hit a six in the same over to complete the team’s century. Left-handed batsman Wadhera completed his first half-century of his IPL career in 46 balls by taking two runs against Jadeja in the next over.
He accelerated the team’s run rate by hitting three fours in this over and completed a fifty-run partnership in 39 balls with Stubbs. However, Pathirana bowled him in the 18th over to give Chennai a big breakthrough. In the next over, Tushar Deshpande played a key role in preventing Mumbai from scoring big by dismissing Tim David (two runs in four balls). In the last over, Pathirana removed Arshad Khan (one run in two balls) and Stubbs.
