An astonishing penultimate over assault saw the Mumbai Indians win one of the best matches of this year’s IPL against Chennai Super Kings by six wickets. It was the fifth win in a row for Mumbai and a first home defeat for the table-topping Super Kings.
Seemingly in control of the run chase, Mumbai appeared to throw victory away by needlessly losing four wickets to rash shots. They came into the 19th over still needing 30 runs to win and with a new batsman on strike. However the 21-year-old Hardik Pandya hit three sixes and Ambati Rayudu another as they plundered Pawan Negi’s six deliveries for 25 runs.
Brendon McCullum began the Super Kings’ innings in familiarly frustrating fashion, holing out after thrashing 23 from 10 balls. It increased the pressure on his team-mates as evidenced by the seven dot balls that immediately followed his wicket.
With the run-rate hovering around a middling seven-per-over, Suresh Raina – playing his 150th consecutive IPL game – and Dwayne Smith perished, looking to kick-start the innings, both caught in the deep in consecutive overs for 10 and 27 respectively. At the halfway stage of the innings they were just 67 for three – a far cry from their traditional blistering starts.
MS Dhoni and Faf du Plessis were therefore left in the difficult situation of both having to rebuild the innings and accelerating – a task made harder by the slow nature of the pitch. They made 39 in 37 balls, but once again the partnership was broken before it could kick on – du Plessis caught well at short fine leg by Lendl Simmons to give Mitchell McClenaghan his second wicket after that of McCullum.
At that stage it looked as though Chennai might struggle to make a competitive total, however Dhoni found an aggressive partner for the final overs in Negi. The young all-rounder struck four fours and a six in his 17-ball innings of 36 before being run out off the final ball of the innings. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 39, the fifth wicket having added 54 runs at 11.57.
Knowing that the pitch would slow down even more and that spin would be difficult to score against, the Mumbai openers, Parthiv Patel and Simmons, set about going after the Super Kings’ seamers. Both batsmen showed precise timing in bringing up the 50 partnership in five overs.
With no wickets having fallen at the innings’ midpoint and 84 runs on the board, even the implacable Dhoni may have started to worry. However it was the Indians openers who seemed to panic, both slog-sweeping wildly at Ravi Ashwin, who finished with two wickets for 17, in the 11th over and departing when well set. Simmons had make 38 from 31 balls and Patel 45 from 32 but they left their side having to start again with two fresh batsmen at the crease.
The panic seemed infectious as Kieron Pollard was run out for one in the next over thanks to some sharp work by Dwayne Bravo. At 10pm local time a brilliant, upset win looked on the cards; by 10.10pm the Indians were threatening one of the great IPL chokes.
As long as Rohit Sharma remained at the crease the result remained in the balance, but he too was guilty of throwing his wicket away when he slogged Bravo to Suresh Raina at long on to leave his side 126 for four with three overs remaining. It was a needless wicket as he and Rayudu had taken 17 runs from the previous over. Somehow though, Pandya managed to avoid being afflicted by nerves.
