Dhoni finishes off in style’: MS Dhoni pulls of final over heist against Mumbai to hand Chennai second win

 Dhoni finishes off in style’: MS Dhoni pulls of final over heist against Mumbai to hand Chennai second win

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (image source : BCCI/IPL)

The biggest rivalry of the Indian T20 League between Mumbai and Chennai was on show in the 33rd match of the 15th edition of the tournament at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. The two teams gifted the fans a last ball thriller as is expected when they meet.

Chennai won the toss in the match and decided to field first. Mumbai had a very poor start to their innings as both their openers were dismissed in the very first over by Mukesh Choudhary. Both Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma were dismissed even before they could open their accounts. Mumbai lost another wicket in Dewald Brevis and was down to 23 for three within the third over. Suryakumar Yadav (32 off 21) tried to provide solidity in the middle order but was dismissed in the eighth over by Choudhary. Mumbai was reeling at this stage at the score of 47 for four in 7.3 overs. A small partnership of 38 runs developed for Mumbai between Hrithik Shokeen and Tilak Varma and somewhat steadied the ship for the team.

Shokeen (25 off 25) was the fifth wicket to fall for Mumbai at the score of 85 in the 14th over. Varma however, looked resilient at one end and continued his progress. He remained unbeaten at 51 off 43 deliveries and with the help of a late order flourish from Jaydev Unadkat (19 off 9), Mumbai reached a total of 155 in their 20 overs. The total looked par specially from being 2 for 2 down in the first over of the innings. Mukesh Choudahry was the pick of the bowlers for Chennai with three wickets for 19 runs of his three overs.

When Chennai came out to chase the total they started on a similar note to Mumbai losing a wicket without a run being scored. After a brilliant knock in the last match Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed for a golden duck by Daniel Sams. Chennai sent Mitchell Santner to bat at number three in an attempt to up the scoring rate. But Santner’s stay was cut short by Sams as he was dismissed for 11 runs off 22 deliveries. Chennai was in desperate need of a partnership at this stage to stay in the game. Ambati Rayudu and Robin Uthappa stitched a partnership of 50 runs and got the chase back on track. Uthappa was dismissed in the ninth over of the innings for 30 off 25 deliveries. The scoreboard for the men in yellow read 66 for three from nine overs. The match was in the balance at this stage.

After Uthappa went Chennai lost two more wickets and were placed at 103 for 5 after 15 overs. The match looked in balance with 53 runs required of the last 30 balls, but the departure of a set batter in Rayudu (40 off 35) was a set back for them. They kept losing wickets and were falling behind in the chase. Only a miracle could have saved Chennai from there. Dwaine Pretorius and MS Dhoni looked well on their way to pull of a stunning victory from the jaws of defeat. The duo got a partnership going which got them to a stage where they needed 17 runs off 6 deliveries to win the match. Though Unadkat dismissed Pretorius (22 off 14) of the first ball, it was vintage Dhoni (28 off 13) on display as he scored 16 runs of the last four deliveries to take Chennai home. It was Chennai’s second win in the tournament, while Mumbai is still searching for their first points after seven games .

https://twitter.com/IrfanPathan/status/1517170396805484544?s=20&t=A_WU8cykkDxCqACTSUlFRg

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https://twitter.com/harbhajan_singh/status/1517201137673277440?s=20&t=A_WU8cykkDxCqACTSUlFRg

Steven

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