Despite making the worst possible start with the bat, Chennai Super Kings came out triumphant over defending champions in a low-scoring first game of the UAE leg of the IPL 2021 in Dubai on Sunday.
The Kings were 7/3 by the end of the third over and 24/4 at the completion of the powerplay, and yet the three-time winners clinched an encouraging come-from-behind win by 20 runs, a significant margin of victory in T20 cricket.
On a Dubai track with some decent grass cover, MS Dhoni and co. surprisingly decided to bat first after winning the toss and for the early phase of their innings, it did look like a move that was bound to haunt CSK back.
They lost two of their crucial players Faf du Plessis (0) and Moeen Ali (0), without them opening their account. The pace and class of MI seamers Trent Boult (2/35) and Adam Milne (2/21) was proving a touch too good on the surface for CSK’s experienced players, as they soon found themselves in even more trouble.
Ambati Rayudu, the Kings’ other key batsman, got retired hurt after trying to fend a very quick short ball from Milne that hit him bang on the elbow.
Veteran left-hander Suresh Raina soon followed Rayudu to the pavilion when his painstaking stay at the crease was over for an individual score of just 4. Dhoni came out, and though he played the short ball a lot better than other CSK players, especially Raina, his attempted pull shot on the score of 3 went straight to the deep square leg fieldsman.
Amidst all this, young opening batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad batted with great maturity and kept his end intact. Gaikwad, along with all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (26), resurrected the CSK innings through some sedate batsmanship before going on the offensive in the latter stages. The right-hander played the best knock of his young IPL career, scoring an unbeaten 88 off 59 deliveries, including nine fours and four sixes.
Gaikwad’s encouraging display, an iffy but useful hand from Jadeja and late-order blitz from Dwayne Bravo (23 off 8) allowed CSK to cross the 150-mark.
In the run-chase, MI never really got going. Missing two key players in their regular captain Rohit Sharma and all-rounder Hardik Pandya, the team kept losing wickets at regular intervals throughout the second half.
Quinton de Kock (17), debutant Anmolpreet Singh (16), Ishan Kishan (11), stand-in captain Kieron Pollard (15) all got starts, but no one played the innings of substance that their team required.
Middle-order batsman Saurabh Tiwary could say he played that knock – scoring 50 – but his runs came off 40 balls. He could never really enter the second gear, partly down to disciplined CSK bowling and partly because of losing his partners regularly at the other end.
It was a great turnaround for CSK who looked down and out in the contest at the end of the powerplay while they batted. For MI, another notoriously incomplete performance at the start of their campaign or in this case, the resumption of the tournament.
Deepak Chahar (2/19) and Bravo (3/25) were the pick of the bowlers for CSK, especially Chahar, who made crucial blows in the powerplay. Josh Hazlewood (1/34) started off poorly but returned to get the prized scalp of Pollard when MI needed 70 off 42 balls with wickets in hand. Shardul Thakur (1/29) also played his part very nicely.
CSK, impressively, had a collectively better bowling performance than MI, whose Krunal Pandya (0/27) bowled a short but expensive, momentum-shifting spell when Gaikwad and Jadeja were rebuilding the innings. MI’s death-bowling also was made to look poor by Gaikwad, who took a liking to even Jasprit Bumrah (2/33) on the night.
Brief scores
CSK 156/6 in 20 overs (Gaikwad 88*, Jadeja 26; Milne 2/21, Bumrah 2/33 ) beat MI 136/8 in 20 overs (Tiwary 50*, de Kock 17; Bravo 3/25, Chahar 2/19) by 20 runs
