Picture : Twitter / IPL
Mumbai Indians have this uncanny habit of peaking at the right time and this was evident once again in the IPL. The three time champions stormed into their fifth IPL final after they beat Chennai Super Kings in the first qualifier at Chennai by six wickets. The winner of the first qualifier gets direct entry to the final.
CSK though have another chance to reach the final as they now await the winner of the eliminator match between the Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first . Their opening woes continued as openers faf Du Plessis ( 6) and Shane Watson ( 10) fell early. Suresh Raina’s inconsistency came to fore again . He was out for ( 5). Murali Vijay in place on injured Kedar Jadhav scored ( 26) . CSK innings was in tatters.
Ambati Rayudu unbeaten on 42 off 37 balls with three fours and 1 six and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni unbeaten on 37 off 29 balls with three sixes helped CSK post a much below par total of 131/ 4 in 20 overs.
Mumbai bowlers were spot on and exploited the slow pitch which had turn as well as bounce. Rohit Sharma made some shrewd bowling changes and it worked again.
Lasith Malinga 0/ 26 ( 3 overs) , Krunal Pandya 1/ 21 ( 4 overs) Rahul Chahar 2/ 14 ( 4 overs) , Jayant Yadav 1/ 25 ( 3 overs) , Jasprit Bumrah 0/ 31 ( 4 overs), Hardik Pandya 0/ 13 ( 2 overs)
In reply Mumbai Indians were rocked early with Skipper Rohit Sharma ( 4 ) , Quinton De Kock ( 8), Krunal Pandya ( 0) were out early but a 50 run partnership between Ishan Kishan ( 28 ) and Suryakumar Yadav ( 71 not out) helped Mumbai get back into the match. Yadav stayed till the end with Hardik Pandya, who was unbeaten on 13 as they guided Mumbai home without any further damage. Mumbai reached the total 132/ 4 in 18. 3 overs.
CSK bowlers did not have runs on board to thwart Mumbai despite they gave it all. Deepak Chahar 1/ 30 ( 3.3 overs)
Harbhajan Singh 1/ 25 ( 4 overs) , Imran Tahir 2/ 33 ( 4 overs) , Ravindra Jadeja 0/ 18 ( 4 overs) , Dwayne Bravo 0/ 25 ( 3 overs)
