Chennai Super Kings kicked off their Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 campaign with a five-wicket win against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
While Ambati Rayudu starred with the bat, Lungi Ngidi scalped three wickets. Faf du Plessis, meanwhile, shone with the bat and in the field and Sam Curran played a cameo in what was MS Dhoni’s 100th IPL win as a CSK captain.
At the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, MI made an impressive start after put in to bat. Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock did not waste any time to hit the ground running. The MI openers hit a four each in the first over bowled by Deepak Chahar.
The MI wicketkeeper-batsman continued to score at a brisk pace to power his team to 45/0 at the end of four overs.
But CSK managed to pull things back in the space of two runs as Piyush Chawala and Curran dismissed Rohit and de Kock respectively in the last two overs of the powerplay.
Saurabh Tiwary and Suryakumar Yadav then added 44 runs together before Chahar got the MI right-hander out in the 11th over.
Hardik Pandya was the next man to walk out in the middle and he announced his intentions straightway, hitting Ravindra Jadeja for two sixes in the 12th over. MI were 121/3 at the end of the 14th over, with Tiwary and Hardik batting on 42 and 13 respectively.
Then, unfolded the du Plessis fielding masterclass and it helped CSK fetch two wickets in the 15th over. His stunning work near the boundary rope first ended Tiwary’s 42-run stay in the middle and then cut short Hardik’s innings.
CSK continued to chip away as Ngidi picked up three wickets – Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard and James Pattinson – in the space of two overs. Chahar, meanwhile, added one more wicket to his tally, as CSK managed to limit MI to 162/9.
In the chase, CSK lost two early wickets as Trent Boult and Pattinson – two new entrants in the MI unit – dismissed Shane Watson and Murali Vijay in the first two overs.
CSK needed a big partnership to stable the innings and Rayudu and du Plessis did exactly that, denying MI any immediate success.
While the two were initially watchful in their approach, neither missed out on the scoring opportunities to keep the scorecard ticking. Rayudu then brought up his fifty – first half-century of the season – in the 12th over before CSK crossed the 100-run mark.
The duo of Rayudu and du Plessis’ 115-run stand was eventually broken when Rahul Chahar held on to a fine catch – running backwards on his own bowling – to end Rayudu’s fine 48-ball 71-run knock.
While Jadeja hit a couple of fours, Krunal trapped the left-hander before the wickets, with CSK needing 29 runs off 17 balls. Curran, who joined du Plessis in the middle, brought down the equation to 16 off 12 balls, hitting a six and a four off Krunal.
Curran then hit Jasprit Bumrah for a six before getting out following his 6-ball 18-run cameo. du Plessis, who notched up a fifty, then sealed CSK’s win with a four. (IPL)
