It seems there is no end to Chennai Super Kings’ woes. Last year’s champions were going from bad to worse. They continued their dismal run against Mumbai Indians in the must-win match of the Dream11 Indian Premier League at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Despite Sam Curran’s fighting half-century, the three-time former champions managed to muster just 114 for 9.
The total was given some respectability by Curran, who waged a lone battle with 52 off 47 balls. The left-hander struck four boundaries and a couple of sixes to bail his side out.
At one stage, CSK were reeling at 43 for 7 and it looked they would not even cross the 100-run mark. Trent Boult was wrecker-in-chief as the left-arm paceman rattled the CSK top-order with a sensational piece of swing bowling. The New Zealander picked up three wickets in the first spell before coming back again to dismiss Curran. He returned with an impressive bowling figures of 4-1-18-4.
Curran was involved in two crucial partnerships to boost the total. First he added 28 runs for the eighth wicket with Shardul Thakur (11) and then stitched together a 43-run stand for the ninth wicket with Imran Tahir, who remained unbeaten on 13 off 10 balls.
In the last five overs, CSK did a lot better and added crucial 43 runs for the loss of solitary wicket.
Jasprit Bumrah (2-25) and Rahul Chahar (2-22) gave able support to Boult to restrict CSK.
Earlier, stand-in skipper Kieron Pollard won the toss and opted to field first.
Dhoni and company need to win their remaining four games and hope for some favourable results from other teams to qualify for the playoffs.
The two teams kick-started the league in Abu Dhabi on September 19 in the inaugural match when CSK beat MI by five wickets, courtesy Ambati Rayudu’s fifty.
Since then CSK have been struggling as they won just two of their next nine matches. On the other hand, MI recovered well after the initial hiccups and maintained their position in the top-3 in the points table.
Brief scores
Chennai Super Kings 114 for 9 in 20 overs (Sam Curran 52, MS Dhoni 16, Imran Tahir 13 not out, Shardul Thakur 11; Trent Boult 4-18, Jasprit Bumrah 2-25, Rahul Chahar 2-22, Nathan Coulter-Nile 1-25) vs Mumbai Indians.
Courtesy: orangecitysports.com
