The Mumbai Indians had a nervy outing with the bat in the 2023 Indian Premier League clash against Chennai Super Kings on Saturday night, as the side lost half of its batters within 89 runs at the Wankhede Stadium. After Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the CSK captain, invited Rohit Sharma’s men to bat first in Mumbai, the Super Kings bowlers ruled the roost with Tushar Deshpande getting the big breakthrough in the fourth over, as he dismissed a dangerous-looking Rohit Sharma on 21.
Wickets fell like a house of cards when Ishan Kishan departed just after the powerplay, as Mumbai Indians lost a batter every over for four successive overs.
Suryakumar Yadav, MI’s star batter, endured yet another disappointing outing as he was dismissed on 1 in the innings. Mitchell Santner got the big breakthrough in the eighth over of the game as Suryakumar, chasing a delivery going down the leg-side, attempted to sweep it towards the fine leg boundary. However, the batter failed to get the impact and the ball caressed past his glove; while the umpire remained unmoved after appeal from CSK players, MS Dhoni took a review straightaway.
The replays did show that there was an impact between the ball and glove, as Suryakumar departed early in the innings.
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Following the dismissal, the fans on Twitter bowed down to MS Dhoni’s immaculate DRS decisions. Here are some of the reactions:
While MS Dhoni remains strong as ever with his captaincy decisions during the game, the Chennai Super Kings star has also played bright cameos for the side in both games so far. Against Gujarat Titans in the season opener, Dhoni scored an unbeaten 14 off 7 deliveries after he arrived at 8th position in the batting order.
In their second match against Lucknow Super Giants, Dhoni stole the show with two successive sixes against Mark Wood – one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket – before departing on a three-ball 12 in the final over.
