Navi Mumbai: Chennai bowlers were unbeaten in the ‘T20’ league match, Mumbai team scored only 155 runs in 20 overs.
Navi Mumbai, D.Y. ‘Current champions’ Chennai met five-time trophy winners Mumbai in a T20 cricket league match at the Patil Sports Academy Grounds. Moin Ali and Chris Jordan were replaced by Dwayne Pretorius and Mitchell Santner in the Chennai squad. Fabian Allen, Murugan Ashwin, Dimal Mills have been dropped from the Mumbai squad and Daniel Sams, Hrithik Shokeen and Riley Meredith have been added. Chennai captain Ravindra Jadeja won the toss and elected to field.
Mukesh Asathal: The Mumbai team was in for a shock early on. Captain Rohit Sharma (0) was dismissed in the 2nd ball of the first over by Mukesh Chaudhary. Ishant Kishan (0) bowled the fifth ball. Suryakumar Yadav, who started his run account by sending the ball to Mukesh for a four, hit a four off the ball by Mitchell Santner. Mukesh, who continued to intimidate, returned to the pavilion at ‘speed’ Bravis (4). Mumbai lost 3 wickets for 23 runs.
Suryakumar comfort: Tilak Verma hits a four off Mukesh. At the other end, Mahesh Deekshana flew the ball to Suryakumar for a six. At the end of the ‘Power-Play’ over, Mumbai were 42 for 3. Suryakumar (32) was caught in a ‘spin’ by Santner when he added 24 for the fourth wicket.
Tilak fifties: Tilak Verma hits a six in the 11th over off Jadeja. Hrithik Shokeen (25), who chased down Jadeja and Santner balls for a four, was bowled by Dwayne Bravo. Pollard (14), who flew the ball to Deeksana for a six, was not largely sober. Daniel Sams (5) did not stand. Tilak, who was in charge, sent the Pretoriaus ball for a six and hit a fifty. In the last over thrown by Bravo, Asatiya Unadkat hit a four and a six.
Mumbai scored 155 for 7 in 20 overs. Tilak (51) and Unadkat (19) were unbeaten. Mukesh took 3 wickets for Chennai.
Selection of Madisha Pathirana
Chennai’s Adam Milne (New Zealand) has been ruled out of the 15th season with a hamstring injury sustained during the match against Kolkata. He has been replaced by Sri Lankan fast bowler Madisha Pathirana 19. He has so far played in only one ‘List A’ and two ‘T20’ matches. Besides, he became the 2nd Sri Lankan player to be selected for the Chennai team. Sri Lanka’s Mahesh Deeksana has already been included.
‘Duck-out’ tragedy
Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma, who cheated at bat, has topped the list of players who have been ‘duck-out’ the most times in the IPL. He has played 220 matches so far and returned to the ‘Pavilion’ for the 14th time without scoring a single run.
In the next place are Pius Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Mandeep Singh, Parthiv Patel, Raghane and Ambati Rayudu, who have been ducked out 13 times each.
The second time
Both the Mumbai openers were ducked out for the second time. Earlier, in the 2009 match against Delhi in East London (South Africa), Mumbai’s opening pair of Luke Ranchi and Duminy were out for not a single run.
150 wickets
Twain Bravo, who dismissed Mumbai’s Daniel Sams, took the 150th wicket for Chennai. He took 136 wickets in 113 matches for Chennai in the IPL, taking 14 wickets in 14 matches in the Champions League.
Fielding dentition
The fielding of the Chennai team was poor. Captain Ravindra Jadeja 2, Dwayne Bravo, Shivam Dubey each missed a one-time ‘catch’ opportunity.
