Dwayne Bravo’s lone battle leads CSK to register thrilling victory over Mumbai Indians in IPL opener
Mumbai, April 8: In the very first encounter of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) held their nerve to defeat the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday. Notably, chasing a target of 166 runs, CSK were down and out for all counts when they were reduced to 118-8 but West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo was the star of the day while Kedar Jadhav became the hero of the last over as CSK got their campaign off to a thrilling start.
Chasing a decent target, CSK openers Ambati Rayudu and Shane Watson gave the team an ideal start as they started to hit boundaries as soon as their innings started. Rayudu was more aggressive but Mumbai Indians introduced Hardik Pandya and got a success immediately as he got rid of Watson for 16 to break the opening partnership.
T20 specialist batsman of CSK, Suresh Raina became Hardik's second scalp of the day as he gave away a simple catch to Krunal at mid-on for just 4 runs. Immediately, Mumbai Indians brought debutant Mayank Markande in the attack which proved more effective and trapped Rayudu and Dhoni in quick succession of time.
Kedar Jadhav and Ravindra Jadeja taking their innings ahead started the rebuilding job and tried to put on a good partnership for the fifth wicket. However, the 24-run stand was ended by Mustafizur Rahman who took a wicket of Jadeja as Chennai lost half their side at this point.
Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh and Mark Wood all followed suit in quick successions as Mumbai looked like finishing the match early. However, Dwayne Bravo turned the match on its head through an incredible blitz. The Trinidadian walked out to bat in the twelfth over, at which stage the score read 75-5. He watched his team slip further to 118-8 when Mark Wood was dismissed in the seventeenth over.
That’s when Bravo decided to take matters into his own hands. In the following over, he got stuck into Mitchell McClenaghan in what can be identified as the turnaround over. Bravo hit the left-arm pacer for 6, 4, 2& 4 and collected a single off the final ball. CSK were suddenly back in the race.
In the following over, Bravo hit the first two deliveries bowled by JaspritBumrah into the stands and did that a third time later in the over. He was dismissed off the last ball of the 19th over when he picked out the fielder at extra cover. But his 68 made from 30 deliveries and studded with 3 fours and 7 sixes had brought CSK to the brink.
However, on the last ball off the over, Bumrah got the wicket of Bravo and Chennai needed 7 runs off the last Mustafizur over. Jadhav who had to head back into the hut after sustaining a hamstring injury earlier in the innings returned to bat in the last over. He slammed a six and four on the fourth and the fifth balls respectively as Chennai completed a thrilling one-wicket win in the IPL XI opener.
Earlier in the evening, the Mumbai Indians innings had three batsmen making 40s – but the one knock that had the biggest impact was Krunal Pandya’s unbeaten 22-ball 41. The left-hander came in to bat with 32 balls remaining in the innings; he dominated the strike, collected boundaries with ease and took MI to what was nearly a match-winning total on the night.
Krunal opened his account with a boundary through cover. He thereafter got stuck in Mark Wood, whom he hit for 17 runs in the seventeenth over of the innings and 16 runs in the nineteenth over of the innings. Against the remaining bowlers, Krunal only managed to score 8 runs off 12 balls.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indians 165-4 (Suryakumar Yadav 43, Krunal Pandya 41*, Ishan Kishan 40, Shane Watson 2-29) lost to Chennai Super Kings 169-9 in 19.5 overs (Dwayne Bravo 68, Mayank Markande 3-23)
Man of the Match:
Dwayne Bravo, for his all-round performance (4-0-25-0 & 68 off 30 balls)