The famed Mumbai Indians-Chennai Super Kings rivalry, aka IPL’s ‘El Clasico’, did not quite live up to its billing of being the fiercest rivalry in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as CSK cruised to a rather one-sided victory on Saturday to collect their second win of the 2023 season.
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Chennai manage to slow Mumbai down through a flurry of wickets after Rohit Sharma and Co got off to a flying start and managed to restrict them to 157/8 — a total that was well short of the par score.
Four-time champions CSK would then recover from a shaky start, stitching some big partnerships along the way and chasing the target down with seven wickets and 11 deliveries to spare to condemn five-time winners MI to their second consecutive defeat in the season.
Chennai continued their impressive march after starting with a defeat against defending champions Gujarat Titans as a result of their victory, jumping to the fourth spot with a second win on the bounce. Mumbai, on the other hand, stayed at the eighth spot, above Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad — two other teams yet to open their account in the 16th season.
As we look back at the events of the 12th match of IPL 2023, we bring to you some of the standout moments and developments from the game:
CSK spinners strangle MI batting unit
MI got off to a promising start after being invited to bat with both openers, skipper Rohit Sharma and wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan, getting off to promising start as the hosts raced to 61/1 at the end of the powerplay. Ravindra Jadeja’s dismissal of Kishan in the first over after the end of the fielding restrictions, though, would trigger a collapse from which Mumbai would not recover, and would set the tone for the rest of the game.
Kishan holed out to long on off Jadeja’s bowling, while Suryakumar Yadav suffered yet another failure after a brilliant decision by MS Dhoni to review an unsuccessful caught-behind appeal, resulting in a faint nick on UltraEdge. Jadeja would then pull off a brilliant catch off his own bowling to dismiss Green before Santner trapped Arshad Khan leg-before as MI crumbled from 64/1 to 76/5.
Jadeja’s ‘Catch of the Day’
Among the standout moments of the day was Jadeja pulling off a blinder off his own bowling to dismiss MI all-rounder Green in the ninth over. The Australian struck the ball with almighty force, enough to scare umpire Chris Gaffaney into shuffling anxiously to his right and falling over after losing his balance in the process.
Gaffaney, however, would’ve been fine even if he stood his ground as Jadeja highlighted his Spiderman-like reflexes by sticking his hands out and grabbing the ball that came like a rocket towards him.
6, 4, 6… and a wicket!
Despite the batting collapse in the middle overs, MI needed one solid knock from one of their middle or lower-order batters to post a total in the range of 170-180, and Australia’s Tim David briefly ignited those hopes with an entertaining 31 off 22 deliveries. The Singapore-born batter was particularly harsh on seamer Tushar Deshpande, collecting two sixes and a four in consecutive deliveries in the 17th over and appearing to get into the groove.
Unfortunately for Mumbai, Deshpande would have the last laugh as David holed out to Rahane at deep midwicket while looking for a third maximum in the over. Had he stuck around for a while longer and carried on in the same manner, it could have tilted the momentum in Mumbai’s favour and might have put a lot more pressure on Chennai.
Behrendorff gives MI a glimmer of hope
After David and Hrithik Shokeen’s valuable contributions helped Mumbai cross the 150-mark, left-arm seamer Jason Behrendorff gave the five-time champions hope of successfully defending the modest target by removing Devon Conway for a four-ball duck in the very first over of the Chennai chase. Conway, who smashed a 29-ball 47 against the Lucknow Super Giants in Chennai’s previous game and stitched an opening stand with Ruturaj Gaikwad worth 110, ended up chopping the ball onto the stumps to register his second single-digit score of the season so far.
Local boy Rahane blows Mumbai away
Ajinkya Rahane would not have had any role to play today had Moeen Ali not fallen ill ahead of the match. Not only did the former India captain make his first appearance for his sixth IPL franchise, he also made it an occasion to remember by producing perhaps the most defining white-ball knock of his career. Mumbai’s hopes were up after Conway’s early exit and Rahane found himself in a pressure situation walking out at one-down.
Jinks, though, would turn the game on its head and allow CSK to wrest back control with a vicious assault on Arshad Khan in the fourth over — collecting a maximum with a pull behind square and following it up with four consecutive boundaries and a single to plunder 23 runs in one over.
That signalled a shift in momentum and the Mumbai bowlers would suddenly struggle to come up with answers against a rampaging Rahane who could continue to make merry on a surface that he knows all too well, bringing up his half-century in just 19 balls — the fastest of the season so far.
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