Dhoni finishes well for Chennai yet again
MUMBAI: In the Indian Premier League 2014 game played between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai, the match had its fair share of spills and thrills, before Chennai won it by four...
May 10, 2014
Even Dwayne Smith, who has been in prime form in IPL 7 struggled to find the boundary with ease. He finally smashed the experienced, Harbhajan Singh for a six with a hoick across the line.
Chennai also were not helped by two decisions going against them and that too against their key players, Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina.
Once Smith thwacked a towering six off Harbhajan though, Chennai’s batsmen opened up their shoulders with some big hits.
Faf du Plessis took advantage of Corey Andersen’s medium pace bowling by smashing him for a six. Smith followed it up by hammering Praveen Kumar for a six with another agricultural hoick across the line. Smith then reached his fifty in 49 balls.
Earlier, Mumbai, despite losing a single wicket during the first 10 overs of the innings stuttered a bit. Chennai’s spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin bowled tight overs to keep the opposition ranks on tenterhooks.
Even the seamers in their line-up bowled with good control. Among the seamers, Mohit Sharma was the best bowler on view. It eventually led to the dismissal of the opener, Lendl Simmons, who was caught by Faf du Plessis on the boundary line off the bowling of Ashwin for a well-measured innings of 38. It finally meant that Mumbai could get 157 for the loss of six wickets in their allotted 20 overs and that too on their home turf.
Chennai’s spinners went through their overs very quickly and that didn’t help Mumbai’s cause, as their batsmen didn’t have much time to settle down at the crease and up the ante against economical bowlers. Even someone like Rohit Sharma known for playing shots wasn’t able to get things going. Kieron Pollard too lost the plot and got out early.It was left to Ambati Rayudu to play fine strokes to at least take them to a fighting total on the board. Corey Anderson chipped in with a few hefty blows right at the end.
Chennai’s fielding though, was a bit of a letdown. Samuel Badree dropped a catch off Ambati Rayudu at deep third man and there were also mis-fields. du Plessis though, made up for it with a fine piece of fielding at long-off to prevent a six. However, they would be happy with their bowling effort.
