IPL 2014: 4 reasons why MI lost the eliminator against CSK

After a sensational victory against the Rajasthan Royals that pushed them into the playoffs, Mumbai Indians were high on confidence taking on their traditional rivals in this short IPL history – Chennai Super Kings. Both teams have huge fan following, and have bigwigs in Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni respectively to draw passionate fans. Many a times these teams have produced great battles for the fans and made us all to witness and experience disappointment, elation and thrill over their closely contested fixtures. But in the end, it will always be heart-break for one side and joy for another. Despite Mumbai beginning the season as the only team to have a positive history against the two-time champions, they ended up with 3 losses to make things even over the course of the tournament. Nevertheless, on an overall perspective they should be happy with their finish after the disastrous start and also they have now confirmed their presence in this year’s champions league. Here we look back at the Eliminator to analyse what went wrong for Rohit Sharma's men.

#1 Not a good finish with the bat

After beginning the innings cautiously against the Super Kings’ new ball bowlers, soon Michael Hussey joined in the on-slaught with Lendl Simmons to rack up 53 runs in the powerplay overs. Despite the former CSK-ian falling inside 10 overs, Corey Anderson took off from where he left. However the New Zealander didn’t last long, making 20 in 10 balls. Simmons and Rohit Sharma batted well but fell in pursuit of quick runs.

The Mumbai lower middle order did not last long, trying to go all guns blazing from first ball. Aditya Tare, the man who got Mumbai over the line in the last match with a first ball six perished in attempting the same after Pollard skied a full-toss.

Ambati Rayudu soon joined them in dug-out and they managed to add just 30 runs in last 20 balls, losing 4 wickets off last 9 deliveries. Mumbai looked good to get close to the 200-mark, but failed due to the late collapse. Against a batting line-up as good and as deep as CSK, it was always going to be a tough ask defending a par score.