Mumbai Indians (MI) edged past Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by four wickets in a close encounter on Saturday at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Put to bat first, the MS Dhoni-led team posted a mammoth target of 218/4 in their allotted twenty overs. A swashbuckling inning by Ambati Rayudu (72 off 27) helped CSK pile such a massive score on board.
In response, MI looked in tatters until Keiron Pollard took the onus and thrashed CSK bowlers, scoring an unbeaten 84 runs off 34 deliveries to take his side over the finish line.
After the match was over, fans and followers of Rohit Sharma & Co. applauded the game-changing knock of Pollard. However, a hater tried to bring the franchise down by accusing MI of fixing the match.
“Mumbai Umpire Indians,” tweeted the netizen.
Former MI team member Mitchell McClenaghan was quick to defend the franchise by indirectly pointing out that Mumbai has been the most eminent franchise – winning the title maximum number of times (5). The New Zealand-cricketer took a sarcastic dig by asking the user if the latter wanted to support less successful sides in IPL 2021.
“Who do you support? One of the other less successful franchises?,” McClenaghan responded.
Here’s the post:
Who do you support? One of the other less successful franchises? https://t.co/nyI6RaWrjQ
— Mitchell McClenaghan (@Mitch_Savage) May 1, 2021
Another user tried to attack MI by calling the result biased and maligning them as ‘Ambani Indians’.
Proving his loyalty for the defending champions, McClenaghan responded that the richest Indian business tycoon Mukesh Ambani owns the team and hence the critic was right in labelling them as ‘Ambani Indians.’
🤔 yup they own the team 🤷♂️ https://t.co/J0GcYchTzf
— Mitchell McClenaghan (@Mitch_Savage) May 1, 2021
McClenaghan had been a part of MI throughout his IPL career of 6 years. The left-arm pacer took 71 wickets in 56 matches at an average of 25.39 and an economy rate of 8.49. He was also a part of the 13th edition of the IPL but warmed the bench for the entire season before being released ahead of the 2021 auction.