Super Kings of Chennai 166 of 5 (Rayudu 71, du Plessis 58 *) time Mumbai Indians 162 by 9 (Tiwary 42, de Kock 33, Ngidi 3-38, D Chahar 2-32, Jadeja 2-42) by five windows
The IPL is back. This particular season may be unusual to the point of being surreal, but the beginning had elements that fans of India will find most comforting in its predictability: a loss in the opening game for the Mumbai Indians, who last won. his first game of the season in 2012 – Rocio, and a tactically intriguing chase finished off with MS Dhoni in the fold.
However, Dhoni only faced two balls and did not score a run. He made a more significant impact with his batting order, promoting the left pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran above him to exploit an unusually limited Mumbai attack.
However, prior to that, Faf du Plessis and Ambati Rayudu had given stability and momentum to the chase, respectively, after the Chennai Super Kings lost both starters in the first two overs to Trent Boult and James Pattinson, who secured the New ball to bite under the lights in the short window before the spray turned the conditions in favor of the batters. Rayudu and du Plessis added 115 for the third wicket before a superb 16 over by Rahul Chahar restored the sense of balance to the contest, leaving the Super Kings needing 42 of 24 balls with Rayudu back in the locker room. We will come back at the end later.
One quick start and two quick hits
Dhoni won the first pitch of the season and inserted Mumbai, citing dew (which materialized) and the possibility of early humidity on the field (which did not turn out to be a factor) as his reasons. The rust showed in the opening spells of the three Super Kings fast bowlers, and Rohit and Quinton de Kock, in particular, took their toll, moving Mumbai to 45 for 0 after four overs.
Piyush Chawla came in for a change of pace and struck immediately, extending Rohit’s curious streak of misfortunes against the legs in the IPL (120 balls, 131 runs, nine ejections since IPL 2017) without throwing a particularly striking ball, Rohit hitting half a tablespoon of heart raised by mid-off hands. De Kock crushed Curran straight to midwicket in the next over, and the Super Kings were suddenly testing the only great weakness in Mumbai ‘s lineup: the bridge between their starters and their finalists.
The calm before the no storm
Suryakumar Yadav and Saurabh Tiwary, playing ahead of Ishan Kishan and getting their first IPL game since 2017, did that bridge job adequately, placing 44 in 5.5 overs, the kind of partnership that comes up from time to time in games. T20, somehow nice both teams at the same time.
The partnership was the prelude to the arrival of Kieron Pollard and the Pandya brothers, and when it ended, at the end of the 11th, Mumbai was 92-for-3, with enough time and resources to push towards a total in the 180 -200 range.
Mumbai looked to be on track as Pandya hit two sixes, off Jadeja, on his first five balls, and Tiwary mustered four consecutive quarters in the next over, off Lungi Ngidi. They were still well placed, 121-for-3, after a quiet 14th from Chawla, who used his googly smartly and kept the ball just shy of a safely hittable length.
But two perfectly judged catches by du Plessis right on the edge of the limit, long one for Tiwary and long one for Pandya, sent both batters back at 15, thrown by Jadeja. The limits in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are considerably longer than those in Wankhede and in most of the Indian grounds, and this was the first evidence of how that could influence this tournament.
Then at the beginning of the 17th, Krunal Pandya tickled a harmless delivery from Ngidi for a side leg catch, and Mumbai suddenly only had Pollard and the lower order in the fold. With no big plans from the Super Kings, and without the batting team doing anything egregiously wrong, the inning was falling apart. Only 26 came out of the last 24 balls of Mumbai innings, and only 41 of the last 36, for the loss of six wickets.
Rayudu and du Plessis rebuild after the explosion of a new ball
Before the tournament started, there was a lot of talk about how launches in the UAE would slow down through constant use and help spinners more and more. Perhaps to prevent or delay that result, this field had a layer of healthy turf, and Mumbai new ball pair Trent Boult and James Pattinson took all the help they could, and any early swings they could find, to rule out. Shane Watson and M Vijay both strayed onto balls that strayed toward them from test-match lengths.
At 6-for-2 after two overs, and without Suresh Raina, this was a difficult point for the Super Kings. But the order rate was still manageable, and they did it with a kind of old-fashioned partnership: du Plessis simply turned the shot around at the end, an approach that didn’t put his team under too much pressure thanks to Rayudu’s ball. striking shape at the other end.
There were a couple of opening moments that went the way of the Super Kings. Jasprit Bumrah threw a wide tracker half that Rayudu slapped for four, and that ball, which should have been the last of the Powerplay, turned out to be a no-ball. The free throw was also short, and Rayudu, hoping for that length, sat deep in his crease, stayed next to the ball’s leg and hit it flat for a big six over long.
Then, in the 10th change, a sweep shot from Rayudu dribbled the plunge Bumrah on the short, thin leg; a more athletic fielder probably would have stopped him. The next ball, Boult, one of the best outfielders in the world, missed the coverage limit to give away four more.
Along with all of this, Rayudu went on to land some bold shots: a clean, baseball-style hit over the midwicket after Krunal Pandya had seen him come forward and pulled back; a bat slap from Bumrah that nearly ripped the pitcher’s hand off; an inside-out push on Rahul Chahar’s added coverage.
However, with du Plessis only running a ball at the other end, Mumbai was still in the game, almost. Then Rahul Chahar, running in a reverse diagonal across the referee and handing over his legs nearly a length, dismissed Rayudu and conceded just five runs in the 16th over, leaving the Super Kings 42 to serve 24 balls.
Dhoni wins in clashes
Hardik Pandya was playing his first competitive game since September 2019, having undergone back surgery in the meantime, and was evidently not fit enough to bowl yet. Rohit did not use Pollard either, in a truer tone than the one the West Indies had thrown at the CPL. This meant that Mumbai had only five bowling options, and left arm spinner Krunal Pandya had to pitch 18, with the Super Kings needing 29 at that stage.
Krunal was not bowling with Dhoni, as you would expect in such a situation, but the left-handed Jadeja who had been promoted just for this matchup.
A faster ball caught Jadeja first and Dhoni sent another southpaw, Curran. He blew the fourth ball of the over – a full pitch – over the midwicket for six, and hit the next one – off the stump but not wide enough to be out of reach – to the limit of coverage.
Curran followed up with a six on Jasprit Bumrah’s leg at the start of the next lap, and with less than one run now needed, the competition was over. Dhoni, in the end, almost only had to get up for ceremonial reasons.
The match as it happened
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