After the Mumbai Indians outplayed the Chennai Super Kings by six wickets at the Chepauk on Friday evening, the IPL points table is interestingly poised. Probably, CSK is the only team, which is almost certain to make it to the IPL play-offs.
Other than that, five other teams are in with a chance to be in the next stage. It can’t get better than this during the business end of the competition. Realistically, all of them are capable teams, but it all boils down to how you keep you nerve intact when it matters the most.
Take for example the Mumbai-CSK game. After the home team made a decent score of 158, not many would have routed for a Mumbai win. With CSK not losing a single match on home turf, the self-belief in the team was also very strong.
Captain MS Dhoni and Pawan Negi ensured that their team was ahead of the opposition when they finished their innings. The pair also added 54 runs for thee firth wicket. Dhoni remained unbeaten and this was the 38th time he has remained unconquered in IPL – the most number of times by a batsman.
In reply, Mumbai had a steady start to their run-chase. But two wickets in the 11th over after a solid opening partnership titled the game towards CSK and their trademark fight-back started to bother Mumbai a little bit.
At the end of the 15th over, Mumbai were 101 for three, still needing 58 runs from 30 balls. But a good over from CSK’s Dwayne Bravo pulled back things. By the time the 16th over ended, Mumbai needed 51 runs and from the last two overs the asking run-rate soared further.
Mumbai needed 30 off 12 deliveries, but three sixes from Hardik Pandya off Negi sealed the match in favour of Mumbai. If that was not enough, Ambati Rayudu, who made a very significant contribution in this match, also rubbed it in with a six off Negi, who gave away 25 runs from his fourth over.
The match was over for CSK. This was Mumbai’s fifth straight win in the competition. Interestingly, Negi had given only nine runs from his three over overs and so Dhoni backed him to deliver the 19th over the match, as the pacers had conceded too many runs earlier. This is how a match can change. Even the best and most consistent team has to face it.
