It was a combination of errors of judgement by the umpires, and some very good performances by the Mumbai Indians players, that saw the Chennai Super Kings losing the first qualifier of the IPL by 25 runs. In last two occasions, CSK had won both their games against Mumbai at the Wankhede stadium, but on Tuesday, it was the home team all the way.
Mumbai did everything right from start to finish. They won the toss, opted to bat first, got off to a very steady start and restricted CSK to round up the match in style. Their openers – Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel – could do no wrong with the bat and shared a very crucial opening stand of 90 runs to build a solid foundation for their team.
Thereafter, CSK bowlers tried to check the easy flow of runs just when the Kieron Pollard knock happened. The West Indies all-rounder completely destroyed the CSK attack with some effortless strokes. The ball was coming nicely to the bat that also helped his cause.
With the help of five sixes and one boundary, Pollard made a rapid 41 off just 17 deliveries to take the Mumbai score to 187 for six in 20 stipulated over. Another West Indies bowler Dwayne Bravo took three wickets for CSK a, but he was conceded too many runs.
When Bravo’s team came out to chase, they were faced with a horrendous decision when Dwayne Smith was given out to a full toss delivery on the leg-stump from Mumbai’s Lasith Malinga. Even the umpiring standard at the club level is better than what was at display. Even some of the wide-ball decisions given during the Mumbai innings was laughable.
But as they say, it’s part of the game and CSK still fought hard. Faf du Plessis, the highest scorer for CSK, was one such example who really tried to put things together. But they lost too many wickets and couldn’t consolidate their position. Playing for the first time without Brendon McCullum also hurt CSK’s chance.
But a lot of credit goes to Harbhajan Singh, the way he bowled in the match. In one of his overs, he caught and bowled Suresh Raina, who was looking to make it big, and then, dismissed CSK captain MS Dhoni for duck. These two crucial scalps in the 11th over of the CSK innings gave enough indications that the match was as good as over.
However, it’s not all over for CSK. They are still alive in the tournament and will get another chance to prove their worth in the second qualifier on Friday in Ranchi. Before that, CSK will certainly try to rectify the mistakes and comeback strongly to face Mumbai again in the grand IPL finale in Kolkata on Sunday.
CSK will also come to terms with reality that they have lost this match to a better team, which has scripted the biggest turnaround story of the IPL. All credit goes to the Mumbai Indians for winning their last nine matches out of 11 encounters, that too, after losing several games at the start of the tournament.
