Mumbai, (Samajweekly) Pacer Mukesh Choudhary’s sensational bowling performance (3/19) helped Chennai Super Kings restrict Mumbai Indians to 155/7 despite a fighting half-century by Tilak Varma (51 not out off 43) in an IPL 2022 match at DY Patil Stadium, here on Thursday.
Invited to bat first, Mumbai were off to a horrible start as pacer Mukesh Choudhary dismissed both openers — Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan for ducks in the very first over of the innings.
Chennai could’ve picked a couple of more wickets in the second over but M.S Dhoni missed the stumping of Suryakumar Yadav and skipper Ravindra Jadeja dropped the catch of Dewald Brevis. However, CSK didn’t have to wait much for the next wicket as Choudhary got rid of Brevis (4) in his second over.
Tilak Varma then joined Yadav in the middle and the left-hander was dropped by D.J Bravo at slip. Despite all the action around him, Yadav looked comfortable in the middle and took Mumbai to 42/3 after 6 overs along with Tilak Varma, who went into the defensive mode after getting a reprieve.
Just when it looked like Yadav would continue his fightback, Mitchell Santner was back into the attack and struck to get rid of the batter for 32 as MI were reduced to 47-4.
After losing wickets at regular intervals, Mumbai were in desperate need of a partnership with two young batters — debutant Hrithik Shokeen and Verma showed courage under the tremendous pressure. The duo picked a few timely boundaries to keep the scoreboard ticking for Mumbai.
They were also helped by Chennai’s sloppy fielding as Jadeja dropped his second catch and gave a reprieve to Hrithik. But the debutant couldn’t take advantage of that as Dwayne Bravo came into the attack and struck straight away to remove Hrithik (25). Kieron Pollard (13), who came to bat next hit one six and one boundary but he couldn’t last long and got out to spinner Theekshana. Daniel Sams also couldn’t do much and perished cheaply (5).
Wickets were falling at the other end, but Verma continued his fight and hit crucial boundaries in the slog overs to bail Mumbai out of a precarious position. He got support from Jaydev Unadkat (19 off 9) as the duo remained not out and took Mumbai to 155/7 in 20 overs.
Apart from Choudhary, Dwayne Bravo (2/36), Mitchell Santner (1/16) and Maheesh Theekshana (1/35) were the wicket-takers for CSK.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 155/7 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 51 not out, Suryakumar Yadav 32; Mukesh Choudhary 3/19, Dwayne Bravo 2/36) vs Chennai Super Kings.
