Mumbai Indians finally clicked as a unit tonight, getting over the line against their arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings in what was a largely closely contest encounter.
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But on a pitch that didn’t have too many demons in it, CSK were a little below par with their batting performance, failing to accelerate during the middle overs and at the death as well.
With just 170 odd on the board, it was important for CSK to get a few early wickets in order to put the brakes on that MI scoring rate.
However, CSK were unable to get those initial breakthroughs, as Lewis and Suryakumar strung together a wonderful partnership and almost ensured a good enough platform for the MI middle order to take the game through.
Surya departed and Rohit came in to steady the ship. The MI captain rose to the occasion and played a match winning knock to take his team through.
MS Dhoni was critical of his team’s performance, putting the blame on both the batsmen and the bowlers.
“I think it is important to realize what went wrong. And in the league stage, you will lose. A lot of times we have seen individuals winning it for us. This was one game where we were short by 10-15 runs. Mumbai Indians bowled really well in the middle overs.The wicket had some balls coming on to you very quickly. Playing the cross batted shots was not easy. Choice of deliveries can improve from our bowlers. Overall, we would have liked to add 20-25 runs more. A loss makes you humble. It tests the other batsmen and bowlers. Also, if you keep winning you don’t know what area you need to work on.” Dhoni said.
“It was a good game for us. We have won quite a few games. We now have time to analyze what needs to be done. Overall, it was a tight game and ended in the last over. You should not lose in the 14th or the 15th over, because that will affect the run-rate.” he added.
