Yesterday’s match was, to say the least, an interesting match as the position of both CSK and MI is at the bottom of the table. MI being at 10th place and CSK being at 9. Many people say that the reason is team selection on both ends. But in my opinion, it was mainly because both teams lack motivation, and hence the absurd amount of losses. Fun fact; yesterday’s loss was MI’s 7th, which is a record for MI, not the good kind.
Many people, including me, was expecting Pollard to hit like mad man he is, or used to be, because he announced his retirement from International cricket. He got only 11 runs, but it is not to be underestimated because it was from 7 balls.
MI was a confused team from the start with Rohit Sharma getting out for a duck, bowled by Choudry, the scoreboard read 1-1 in 0.2 overs. The wicket of Ishan Kishan, also duck out, bowled with the stumps flying high, again by Choudry left MI at 2-2 in 1.5.
After this I got engrossed in the ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’. Mumbai was suffering until the 17th over when they started hitting like crazy fellows. That and CSK dropping an abysmal number of catches, now the #1 team in dropped catches, meant that the MI ended up with quite a handsome score of 155 runs with 5 wickets.
CSK innings had a rocky start as Gaikwad was out for a duck. After an amazing amount of wickets Preterious’ innings brought the match from ‘totally done’ to ‘hard, but possible’ for the CSK. With 18 runs required off the last over, Dhoni, being the beast he is, pulled it off. His antic in the last over has been called by many as ‘Vintage Dhoni’.
CSK narrowly won the match from right under MI’s nose.