Chennai Super Kings beat Mumbai Indians by 3 wickets in Match 33 of IPL 2022.
Mumbai Indians: 155/7 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 51 not out, Suryakumar Yadav 32; Mukesh Choudhary 3/19, Dwayne Bravo 2/36)
Chennai Super Kings (Ambati Rayudu 40, MS Dhoni 28 not out; Daniel Sams 4/30)
It went down to the wire, and in the end Mumbai Indians had Dhoni standing between them and their first win of the season.
48 runs were needed off the last 24 balls but MS Dhoni pulled off a trademark finish as he stayed unbeaten on 28 off 13 to help Chennai win their second match of the IPL 2022. The 3 wicket defeat is Mumbai's seventh of the season. They are yet to win a match.
Pacer Mukesh Choudhary's sensational bowling performance (3/19) helped Chennai Super Kings restrict Mumbai Indians to 155/7 in 20 overs despite a fighting half-century by Tilak Varma (51 not out off 43 balls).
Chasing a modest target, CSK were also off to a poor start as Daniel Sams removed Ruturaj Gaikwad in the very first ball of the second innings.
Mitchell Santner, who had replaced Moeen Ali and came to bat at No 3. looked in control and hit two fours. But, the left-hander mistimed a bouncer from Sams and got out for 11 runs, leaving CSK at 16-2 after 2.3 overs.
From there on, two veteran batters -- Robin Uthappa (30) and Ambati Rayudu (40) stitched a partnership of 50 runs for the third wicket and kept CSK in the game. However, once they got out, Chennai were back in trouble as the next two batters -- Shivam Dube (13) and Ravindra Jadeja (3) didn't do much.
But, it was Dwaine Pretorius (22 off 14) and Dhoni (28 not out off 13) who hit important runs and kept CSK in the chase till the last over.
CSK needed 17 runs in the last over and Pretorius was trapped leg-before off the first ball. DJ Bravo came to bat next and took a single in the second ball of the over and Dhoni hit Unadkat for 6, 4, 2, 4 in the next four deliveries to seal victory for CSK.
Daniel Sams (4/30) was the most successful bowler for Mumbai while Jaydev Unadkat (2/48) and Riley Meredith (1/25) also chipped in with wickets.
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.
(With inputs from IANS)
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