Mumbai : Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by five wickets in their Indian Premier League match on Thursday. Sent into bat, CSK lost wickets at regular intervals and were bowled out for 97 in 16 overs at the Wankhede Stadium. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni top-scored with an unbeaten 36 off 33 balls. For MI, Daniel Sams picked up three wickets for 16 runs, while there were two wickets apiece for Riley Meredith (2/27) and Kumar Kartikeya (2/22). In reply, MI completed the task with 31 balls to spare after struggling at 33 for four in the fifth over.
Rohit Sharma said, ‘Looking at how the pitch was playing and to lose wickets upfront, there were tense moments in the middle. It was just about keeping calm and getting the job done. After losing those wickets at the start, we were a little calm and got the job done in the end. We have played a lot of cricket here. On so many occasions, we’ve had pitches like this. It’s nice to get bowlers into the game as well at times. It’s been batting-friendly pitches all over, it was good to see bounce and swing from both sides which was good to watch. We are keeping one eye (on the future).
We want to win games and at the same time we try out certain players. There are options that we still want to try. He (Tilak) has been brilliant, playing for the first year, having such a calm head is never easy. I feel he’s going to be an all-format player for India pretty soon. He’s got the technique and temperament. A lot of things are looking bright for him. And there’s hunger as well. (On Bumrah) He knows what he needs to do and what the team expects him to do which is the most important things. He understands, magnificent spell upfront and we saw what he did in the last game as well. (On Pollard missing out) He’s been a stalwart for Mumbai, he came out and said that he’s okay with that. We are keeping one eye on what are the holes to be filled out for the next year’.
MS Dhoni said, ‘ Irrespective of how the wicket is, anything below 130 is difficult to defend, but what I asked the bowlers was to show a lot of character and forget about the result. Both the young fast bowlers bowled really well and I feel a game like this really helps them in believing in themselves that irrespective of the conditions, whenever we start we need to have the same kind of attitude and that’s what is needed in the shortest format. We have gone through periods where we never really had that extraordinary bench of fast bowlers.
Also fast bowlers they take their time to mature, if you are lucky you get somebody who can feature in all formats in six months time and that is what IPL is doing and it is an opportunity for a lot of them. They bowl a bit courageous now which is very important in a format like this. And some players take their time before executing their plans better.
The fast bowlers to have both of them really well is a big positive, and also we will have two more fast bowlers coming in to the next season, also we have few more up the sleeves, just want to give ample time for them to prepare. It’s the first few deliveries which is important when you are batting in that kind of pressure, so it was a chance of survival. Once they are past those first few deliveries, they can be themselves. It didn’t pay off today but I think they bowled really well. A bit of application was needed from our side, and a few of the batters got out on good deliveries, hopefully they are learning with each and every game.’