Any doubts as to the extent of Mumbai Indians’ problems were intensified at the Wankhede last night following a comprehensive six wicket loss at the hands of Chennai.
– IPL Player of the Day: Dwayne Smith (Chennai Super Kings)
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Mumbai would have been reasonably happy and confident setting Chennai 184 to win the match but the Super Kings breezed home, powered by a stunning opening stand of 109 between Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith.
The 2013 champions have now lost four straight matches and of real concern must be the margin of the defeats: seven wickets (twice), 18 runs and six wickets last night.
None have been particularly close each time captain Rohit Sharma has been searching for answers. It was a similar story last term when Mumbai lost five on the spin before recovering to win nine of their last 11 games and reach the knockout phases and Sharma is doing his utmost to not panic.
.@ChennaiIPL your batsmen were fantastic! Congratulations and all the best! #ApunKaSuperstar #MI
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) April 17, 2015
He said: “Our attitude was not right. To bat and get 184 was par on this track. We didn’t execute the bowling plans well.
“We need to go back and see what we are doing wrong. If you don’t win then there’s something wrong in the combination which we have been trying to get right. We need to relax and take it easy.”
Sharma himself can have no complaints over his own form as his 50 took him to 148 runs for the competition but Mumbai got off to a horror start losing their first three wickets for just 12 runs.
Parthiv Patel went for a golden duck inside the first over, trapped lbw by the outstanding Ashish Nehra who had Corey Anderson in his next over, Faf Du Plessis taking a brilliant catch.
Five balls later and Mumbai were three down with Simmons making his way to the dugout after scooping Ishwar Pandey’s delivery for Du Plessis to take another catch.
It was Sharma and Harbhajan Singh (24) who restored some credibility to the proceedings but the spinner, surprisingly promoted ahead of Kieron Pollard and Ambati Rayudu, soon fell to Mohit Sharma.
Rohit was battling away at the other end with his 50 coming off 30 balls but then Nehra caught him out with a slower ball the very next delivery, with Dwayne Bravo taking a catch at long on.
Pollard had been blasting his way through the Chennai attack, claiming three sixes off one Ravindra Jadeja over. Pollard (64 in 30 balls) stuck around to accelerate the total past the 150-mark receiving support from Ambai Rayudu with the pair adding 49 for the fifth wicket.
Our #IPL Player of the Day: Mr. Dwayne Smith @ChennaiIPL #CSK http://t.co/GHeOkINxaJ pic.twitter.com/fJCFWodF85
— Sport360° (@Sport360) April 17, 2015
However, both went in successive balls to Bravo in the final over with Mumbai managing just four runs off their last six balls.
McCullum and Smith wasted no time in showing Mumbai’s openers how to score, bringing up 50 without loss off 24 balls and then needing just another 19 to reach 100.
Harbhajan forced a double breakthrough in the seventh over with McCullum firing down the throat of Vinay Kumar and Smith mistiming him to Rohit at midwicket, but the damage had been done.
Du Plessis and MS Dhoni fell cheaply but Suresh Raina picked up the slack with an unbeaten 43 in 29 balls and the game was Chennai’s.
Dhoni said: “If you are looking to bat first then you have to see how your unit is batting recently, 180- 190 was par and the first few overs were brilliant from our side which won us the match.”
