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Dubai: As Mumbai Indians snapped the winning run of the Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday, many reasons are being listed by supporters of both the teams as to what went wrong and right.
Indians fans feel that this is just a beginning and that with such an approach they can go on to become the champions.
Chennai supporters believe that this is just a blip and should be considered as a lesson on strengthening certain departments of their game.
The match was of great significance as it was a battle between the two most powerful teams in the IPL.
Mumbai made it memorable by recording their 100th victory in the IPL and became the first team to earn that honour.
They are being closely chased by Chennai with 93 victories. So when two teams that are tough to beat go head to head, there are many things to be learnt. Mumbai’s top scorer Suryakumar Yadav’s 59 turned the momentum after the first three overs yielded only nine runs and the loss of opener Quinton De Kock for four.
He hit Chennai’s Shardul Thakur for back-to-back fours and also hammered Deepak Chahar for three consecutive boundaries.
The ability of the team to not be affected by even the loss of their skipper and star batsman Rohit Sharma for only 13 runs played a part.
After Kumar’s knock, they needed an acceleration of run rate and that was provided by the Pandya brothers — Krunal’s 42 off 32 balls and Hardik’s 25 off just eight balls.
Hardik’s helicopter shot, emulating Dhoni’s favourite stroke, even became the shot of the match.
When Pollard too could chip in with a seven-ball 17 runs, Mumbai got a total (170-5) good enough to win the match. Mumbai’s ability to score 45 runs off the last two overs too contributed, and to conquer a formidable team like Chennai such heavy hitting towards the end, is a must.
Chasing such a total, Chennai needed a good start took but Jason Behrendroff’s two quick wickets and Lasith Malinga dismissing the prolific opener Shane Watson pushed them to 33-3 in the first five overs. Mumbai displayed the ability to keep taking wickets regularly also played a part by keeping Kedar Jadhav, who went on to hit 58 runs, at the other end.
Dhoni, being the shrewd captain that he is, has analysed the defeat well to rectify the setback. “There are areas to work on but what is important is for individuals to step up and take responsibility,” he said. “I think quite a few things went wrong for us. I think we started off well and 12th-13th over also we were on the mark, but after that there were some drops and mis-fields. The death bowling also didn’t come off.”
Based on his experience he made one aspect very clear to everyone. “Even if you have finished well, you need to start (the second innings) well. What counts more is setting the tone while batting or bowling.”
Chennai will now take on Kings XI Punjab in their next match on Saturday in Chennai.
Mumbai skipper Sharma now wants to capitalise over this victory — starting against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday. “To defend a 170 score at Wankhede, you need to be really good with the ball and we were with the fielding also being extremely efficient,” he said.
“We don’t want to keep that task of having to win many games at the end, it’s really difficult. We just wanted to play the brand of cricket Mumbai Indians are known for. We just kept ourselves in the game all the way through and those are good signs.”
