E-Paper
Sign in
IPL 2022: MS Dhoni’s finishing touch seals last-over win for CSK
Former CSK captain hits 28* off 13 balls, including 16 in the final over, to hand Mumbai Indians their seventh straight loss
Not for nothing have encounters between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings—two of the most successful and well-rounded Indian Premier League outfits–been so keenly followed in the past. Their battle on Thursday, however, was an apt reflection of their position this season: right at the bottom.
Catch all the updates of IPL 2022
It was the kind of game where Ravindra Jadeja spilled two chances (and his team plenty more), Ishan Kishan fell over missing a fairly innocuous ball and Ruturaj Gaikwad gifted a first-ball half-tracker straight to backward point. Yet this scrappy contest on a gripping DY Patil Stadium surface had the classic MS Dhoni houdini act to end it.
With 16 needed off four balls from Jaydev Unadkat, Dhoni – with a six straight down the ground, a pull for four, a hustling double and a heave off a low full toss past short fine leg – took CSK over the line in a manner few others can. The holders got to MI’s 155/7 with three wickets to spare for their season’s second win. MI slumped to their seventh loss in seven games. Teams have sneaked into the play-offs with 14 points in seven previous seasons, but for this MI unit it appears a distant dream.
CSK’s chase had the familiar early wobble after Gaikwad and Mitchell Santner, drafted in to play Moeen Ali’s role, gave Daniel Sams a couple of wickets. Ambati Rayudu (40, 35b) was pulling them well, and Robin Uthappa (30, 25b) creaming them down the ground as their 50-run partnership motored along till the ninth over.
After Jaydev Unadkat removed the latter, Sams got into the thick of things again in his second spell. The Aussie dismissed the in-form Shivam Dube caught behind in the 13th over and Rayudu off a full toss that was caught smartly by Kieron Pollard running in from long-off. When Rayudu exited for Dhoni to enter, CSK needed 53 off five overs. Dhoni lost Jadeja when he attempted a big shot the next over, only for Dwaine Pretorius (22,14b) to swing a few and bring it down to 17 off the last over. Dhoni then took over.
Rohit was at his jovial self at the toss, but the lack of an impact innings from him could get increasingly concerning. The skipper departed for a two-ball zero, chipping a full ball angling in from left-armer Mukesh Choudhary to mid-on. It was a probing first over from Choudhary, each ball pitched up and heading towards the stumps. Kishan played the wrong line of one such delivery to fall over along with the flying off-stump.
Watch: Mukesh Choudhary sends Ishan Kishan crashing on ground, uproots off-stump with unplayable yorker
Two down in one over, it could have been three in two for MI had Jadeja not pulled out of a skier running back from cover to hand Dewald Brevis a life. Didn’t matter, for Choudhary’s cutter soon had the charging South African caught behind. Suryakumar Yadav, one of MI’s leading batters this season, came out looking just the part, but top-edged a sweep off Mitchell Santner to a finer deep square leg two overs after a similar shot sailed into the stands. Tilak Varma—also dropped by Dwayne Bravo at slip on 2—and 21-year-old debutant Hrithik Shokeen engineered the MI rebuild from 49/4 to 85/4 before Bravo dismissed Shokeen for a run-a-ball 25.
Freshly retired from international cricket, Pollard connected one over long-on but some good old street-smart CSK tactics—perhaps with a touch of Dhoni—saw him hole out to a straight boundary rider positioned between long off and long on. It was only after some late blows by Varma, who reached his fifty in 42 balls, and Unadkat in a 35-run eighth-wicket stand off 16 balls that MI’s total went beyond 150.
