Tonight CSK and MI faced off at the cauldron of Sharjah.

A lookback at the journey of these 2 teams in

this IPL is an ideal example about the uncertainities that the game of cricket carries with itself. Dhoni
and Rohit faced off in the tournament opening clash a few weeks back. In that match, CSK mauled MI
courtesy some disciplined bowling and excellent batting from Rayudu and Du Plessis. Since that clash,
CSK’s stocks have gone down and down and MI’s rise to the top has been on an exponential curve. An
ideal example which demonstrates the proverb “Morning shows the day” to be futile in the game of
cricket.

MI won the toss and chose to field on a batting-friendly pitch. Rohit Sharma pulled a muscle during that
historic superover against Punjab and hence, he was rested. With MI’s position in the league, and the
amount of talent available at their disposal, they could afford to rest their premier batsman for the
uisness end of the tournament. Kieron Pollard, the CPL winning TKR captain, lcame out for the toss in his
absence.

Before I get into analysing the match, let us start with a comment of MSD that drew so much flak on
social media in the last few days. Dhoni stated in the post match presentation that CSK’s youngsters
lacked spark and hence, did not get their opportunity in the playing 11. I am not sure how much
motivation remains in the youngsters after such a public statement by their senior captain. Infact, this is
the first time, I am finding a captain categorizing the youngsters of the team as an inferior group. Great
captains historically have always backed the young guns, be it Mark Taylor or Imran Khan or Ajit
Wadekar or, Sourav Ganguly. Such a statement from an experienced captain like MSD was completely
uncalled for.

I don’t know whether Ruturaj Gaikwad has ever oopened the inning in any form of domestic cricket.
Throwing him to open the batting against the likes of Bumrah and Boult is a cardinal sin from the CSK
management. Boult swung the ball at will and Ruturaj looked at sea against the moving ball. Boult
acounted for Du Plessis and Ruturaj and came back later in the powerplay to account for Jagdeesan. I
must say, CSK was pretty bad at handling the youngsters today. With the ball moving around on a fresh
Sharjah pitch, batsmen of the quality of Curran and Jadeja, who are playing international cricket
regularly were made to wait in the dugout. Jagdeesan and Ruturaj were sent out to counter the likes of
Bumrah and Boult-Absolutely inexplicable from CSK.

At the end of the 3rd over CSK were reduced to 3 for 4. The CSK fortress that was gardually coming down
brick by brick this season were swept off by a massive MI dynamite in this match. At the end of the 7 th
over, CSK were 30-6, almost on the verge of knocking down RCB’s 49 all out record. Boult had dream
figures of 4-1-3-3 and Bumrah picked up the in-form Rayudu.

That is when Sam Curran came in with a rescue act- something that saved CSK the blushes of recording
the lowest score in the tournament. Curran scored an excellent half-century, that took the CSk score to
above 100. Rahul Chahar and Coulter Nile accounted for the remaining wickets to wrap up the inning
with ease.

If MSD had any plans of causing jitters in the MI lineup in the absence of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan
ensured that such a thing did not happen. He looked in groove for the first time after he scored that
decisive 99 against RCB. The fact, that CSK did not have express pace bowling added to Kishan’s comfort
and the wicketkeeper swept and pulled and drove with glee to make light work of the target.
QDK showed how he has improved his game with experience. On other days, he would play the role of
an aggressor letting Rohit settle into his batting. However, with Ishan timing the ball today De Kock set
about rotating the strike and playing anchor role. SA’s captaincy has brought in a lot of maturity in De
Kock’s game.

Kishan scored 68 from 37 deliveries ably supposrted by QDK, who scored 46 to take MI home by 10
wickets. For MI, a place in the top 2 looks a certainty. Wheras for CSK, wooden spoon seems to be their
destinty.