IPL 2018, MI vs CSK: Hits and Misses
The much-awaited 11th season of the IPL got underway with rivals Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings kicking things off. Mahendra Singh Dhoni returned as captain and began positively as he won the toss and opted to bowl first.
Mumbai got off to a sedate start, losing a couple of wickets in the powerplay as the CSK new-ball bowlers found nice movement, both off the air and off the pitch. However, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan batted well to bring MI back on track.
After both of them were dismissed, Krunal Pandya, who was promoted ahead of Kieron Pollard, provided a big finish as he hit a brilliant 22-ball 41. The elder Pandya’s innings helped MI to post 165.
Chasing more than 8 runs per over, Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu gave CSK a solid start before the former was dismissed by Hardik Pandya.
CSK lost wickets at regular intervals and slumped to 118/8 before a stunning innings from Dwayne Bravo helped CSK get close. An injured Kedar Jadhav then finished the chase with a six and a four to help the comeback team get off to a thrilling start.
#5 Miss: Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma is the most successful IPL captain and is the third highest run-getter in IPL history. However, he’s not had the best of starts to the year 2018. He has played 18 innings across the three formats for India and had only three 50+ scores. His patchy form continued as he had a scratchy start to this year’s IPL.
He has batted in the middle order in the last few seasons for Mumbai Indians, but he opened the batting along with Evin Lewis. However, Rohit Sharma was beaten off the first three balls of the innings.
After being deceived by a good first ball, Rohit then went after almost every delivery. He tried a lot of shots at the start of the innings which was very unlike Rohit.
India’s limited-overs vice-captain did hit the first four and the first six of this IPL, but he struggled throughout his innings. His stay ended at the crease when he tried to hoick Watson over mid-wicket and ended up top-edging it to point where Ambati Rayudu took a good catch.
Rohit Sharma scored an 18-ball 15 and never looked at ease when he was at the crease.