Mumbai Indians won their fifth straight game in the Indian Premier League as Hardik Pandya and Ambati Rayudu chased 159 in an exciting way. After a fantastic start to Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons, Mumbai lost their way before some fantastic bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin but a surge late Rayudu Pandya and assured them six wicket victory.
Earlier, Chennai won the toss and elected to bat. They publish 158/5 after a brilliant partnership between MS Dhoni and Pawan Negi that stabilized their ship after losing a lot of land in the center of its entries. Chennai has now lost three of their last four games.
10-9 Chennai Mumbai – which is the result of head to head. The battle between the two most glamorous franchise is set to take off in Chennai. Bombay are impressive-off final form while the Super Kings, even surpassing the table, has not been at his brilliant best. Which way will the pendulum swing tonight?
After being terribly poor in the first half of the tournament, Mumbai clicked into gear and now looks all set to take a top-four spot. Their starters have found a way and in the middle order, Ambati Rayudu has emerged is a savior. The right-hander was unbeaten in his last three shots and out of those three, two were centuries means winning matches.
The bowling looks formidable with Lasith Malinga and Mitchell McClenaghan has rhythm today. However, in Chennai, Malinga was not sent due to current political problems and just when Mumbai needed a replacement, his powerful SUV Corey Anderson is all set to make a comeback.
Chennai, however, have gone out of the boil some. Although recovered after two consecutive defeats, the canary yellow team led by MS Dhoni have failed to impose his usual authority in the tournament. His batting has been especially circumspect with Dwayne Smith misfire on top. Suresh Raina and Brendon McCullum played occasional blinders, but have been very inconsistent.
The way the captain has also been a major concern for CSK.
They bowling has done well. The revival of Ashish Nehra has augured well for Chennai but Ashwin’s injury is a big blow for them. Ashwin has lost a couple of games with a finger injury and will be visited just before the game begins.
It’s been a big change but it has nothing to do with me; credit to the players. We have worked very hard – we worked hard before the first game as well, but things did not go well for planning. We knew that if we can string a few wins together, be able to come back strong. Full credit to the players to show what kind of character when our backs were against the wall.
