Noor Ahmad, Rachin Ravindra guide CSK to win over MI
The wrist spinner’s four wickets and the Kiwi batter’s anchoring knock saw the hosts win by four wickets at Chepauk
Mumbai: Notoriously slow starters, Mumbai Indians again faltered in their opening fixture of the Indian Premier League on Sunday, losing by four wickets to hosts Chennai Super Kings at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium.
MI’s last win in an opening fixture came against CSK at Chepauk in 2012 and playing at the same venue, they would have been hopeful of bucking the trend of starting with a loss. But to the disappointment of their fans, they could not achieve it, struggling against a fine all-round bowling show of the new-look CSK attack on a slow pitch.
They paid the price for a batting failure. An excellent start by left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed and a superb exhibition of wrist-spin bowling by left-arm chinaman bowler, Noor Ahmad, put Chennai Super Kings in the box seat after they elected to bowl.
Khaleel gave CSK a dream start by dismissing Rohit Sharma with the fourth ball of the match, flicking straight to midwicket. The left-arm pacer kept up the pressure in the Powerplay with three sharp overs, finishing with impressive figures of 3/29. The conditions in Chennai are tailormade for spinners and Noor exploited them to the full. In a dream debut for his new franchise, the Afghanistan spinner finished with 4/18, the best figures for a CSK spinner against MI.
On a slow pitch, MI couldn’t get any sort of momentum. Only a cameo by Deepak Chahar in the end helped MI past the 150-run mark, picking up 13 and 14 runs in the last two overs. His 28 not out off 15 balls with two fours and two sixes helped MI finish at 155/9. CSK reached 158/6, winning with five balls to spare.
After marshalling his troops superbly in the field, CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad (53- 26b) led the chase with Rachin Ravindra (65/45b).
MI got an early breakthrough, but Gaikwad treated all the bowlers with disdain to give CSK the upper hand, reaching his fifty off just 22 balls, his fastest in IPL.
ROOKIE PUTHUR SHINES
MI had something to cheer in the bowling of their rookie left-arm wrist spinner Vignesh Puthur, who came in as an Impact Player for Rohit Sharma. He took wickets in each of his first three overs in IPL to take the fight to CSK.
Puthur started with the prize wicket of Gaikwad in his very first over. He followed it up by dismissing Shivam Dube and Deepak Hooda. All three were caught trying to hit Puthur for sixes, but by bowling slower, the youngster gave them no pace to use.
The 24-year-old kept MI in the hunt. CSK had wiped off 108 off the 156-run target. Needing 48 at run-a-ball, they were feeling the pressure. On the first ball of the 15th over, Sam Curran was bowled trying to hit Will Jacks, at the score of 116. Ravindra was holding one end up, but the boundaries had dried up.
It boiled down to 21 from 18 balls when in a final roll of dice MI captain Suryakumar Yadav, standing in for the suspended Hardik Pandya, brought on Puthur for his final over. The set Ravindra smashed two sixes to collect 15 runs from the over, extinguishing MI’s hopes.
SMART STUMPING
At 43, there will be extra scrutiny of a player’s reflexes. But when Surya stepped out and missed a flighted delivery outside off, Dhoni was lightning quick to whip off the bails, providing proof that he still retains his edge. It ended Surya’s 51-run partnership with Tilak Varma. It left MI struggling at 87/4 after 10.3 overs.
Led by Noor, the CSK spinners were in control as MI lost four wickets for eight runs in 16 balls. Noor delivered a double blow, removing Robert Minz and Varma in the 13th over to reduce MI to 96/6. After a break of two overs, Gaikwad brought Noor back into the attack in the 17th over and he struck first ball, bowling Naman Dhir around his legs for his fourth wicket
