Rating charts

MI 9/10 - Absolutely brutal! Showing no mercy to Chennai, Mumbai Indians were on charge right from the start despite having a small total to chase. Ishan Kishan timed the ball like a hot knife slicing butter, hitting 6 fours and a six, helping Mumbai reach the score of 52/0 at the end of the powerplay. 

CSK 1/10 - PATHETIC! After a miserable start, the situation demanded CSK batsmen to play with some responsibility to take the team to a decent total, but Chennai players couldn’t quite understand that. At least they were able to score more runs than they did in the powerplay along with losing 3 wickets, ending the middle overs on the score of 71 for 8. 

MI 10/10 -  GAME. SET. MATCH. It was a mere formality where MI easily chased the target without any hiccups. Ishan Kishan and Quinton de Kock didn’t let any Chennai bowlers trouble them at the crease, as they won MI the game in just 13 overs.

MI 7/10 - Should have bowled out Chennai! After decimating the Chennai batting lineup, putting them down for 8 wickets in the 15th over itself, the Mumbai bowlers should have bowled them out. They gave 43 runs in the end, which might not look a lot, but given the dire state of Chennai, they shouldn’t have been allowed to cross the score of 100. Mumbai could take only 1 wicket, ending 20 overs with the target of 115 to chase. 

Snapshots

The whole cricket fraternity went into a frenzy when MS Dhoni retired from international cricket and had been waiting for him to appear in this edition of IPL for the time since being run-out in the World Cup semi-final. However, this edition of IPL would be a good reality check for his fans, and him as well. Dhoni has looked nothing like the player we used to know. We know that Dhoni has a slow strike rate in the early part of the innings and then accelerates later on but this season, the latter part of his innings has not been seen. In the first few matches, he shied away from promoting himself up the order, and now, that he is getting plenty of balls to play he’s hardly making most of them. Today, too, after hitting Rahul Chahar for a six, we thought we were for classic Dhoni innings but on the very next ball, he was outfoxed by the brilliant leg-spinner Chahar, trying to swat one over extra-cover. A younger Dhoni might have turned the match on its head but we can’t expect the same from the paler version of himself. 

Rahul Chahar has a long career ahead

CSK have given up

Chennai Super Kings didn’t do anything King-like in their batting against Mumbai as they could only score 114 runs after 20 overs of intense struggle. Sam Curran was the only one who got a fifty and saved the Chennai based franchise from embarrassment. Low scores and rare batting collapses happen to even the best of teams, but the way the Chennai batsmen played, it didn’t look like they were in for a competition. They looked dull, without any intent, pale, and without any energy to take on a team like Mumbai. They were struggling to survive on a good batting wicket of Sharjah that was not even slow like in the previous matches (refer to Ishan Kishan’s batting). All they had to do was apply themselves on the crease as Sam Curran did, but they rather preferred to go to the dressing room and rest - such has been the approach of the ‘Team of Daddies’. I guess the era of daddies has finally come to an end. 

The match mostly remained in favour of Mumbai for the most part, but the moment that began the brutal collapse of Chennai was the wicket of Faf du Plessis, who could have stopped the fall of wickets and helped Chennai recover from a horrific start of 3/3. But alas he was beaten by a beautiful ball from Trent Boult, who swayed the Proteas star with a wide one.

Match Frenzy O Meter - Dull