It was a humiliating affair for MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Sharjah on Friday when they locked horns with a Rohit Sharma-less Mumbai Indians (MI). After Mi’s stand-in captain Kieron Pollard won the toss and opted to field first, CSK suffered a huge batting collapse at the top, going down to 24/5 in the powerplay.
The 22-year-old Sam Curran played a fighting 52-run knock, but it was not enough for CSK to put on a challenging total. The Yellow Brigade could only post a target of 115 runs in front of MI, and in a small ground, it proved to be a cakewalk for the defending champions.
With Ishan Kishan smashing an unbeaten 68 from 37 balls, and his opening partner Quinton de Kock scoring an unbeaten 47 off 37 balls, MI chased down the total with ten wickets to spare.
This was the first instance that CSK had lost a match by ten wickets in the history of the IPL. It was also their biggest defeat in terms of balls remaining.
Biggest defeats for CSK (in terms of balls left):
- 46 vs MI, Sharjah, 2020
- 40 vs Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals), 2012
- 37 vs MI, Mumbai, 2008
In the meantime, former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag reckons that the youngsters have let Dhoni down. The likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Narayan Jagadeesan made their return to the playing XI against MI but couldn’t open their accounts.
“This loss against Mumbai will hurt for a very long time. This hurts even more as MS Dhoni might feel that I have tried my youngsters today and they have disappointed me once again. They should have at least scored some runs for themselves and should have taken time to have a taste of the tournament,” Sehwag was quoted as saying on Cricbuzz.
“If the youngsters could have carried the team to a respectable total of 140-150 runs, MS Dhoni would have been contented with that performance. Dhoni would be a lot more hurt as the youngsters have let him down. It will be interesting to see how they make a comeback from here,” the veteran added.
