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Chennai Super Kings (CSK) faced a humiliating batting collapse against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the first match of the second phase of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 as they registered their lowest powerplay score this season. CSK lost four wickets inside six overs. Adding to CSK’s misery, Ambati Rayudu got retired hurt without troubling the scorers.
Among the four batsmen getting out early, Moeen Ali and Faf du Plessis bagged three-ball ducks whereas Suresh Raina and skipper Dhoni managed single-digit scores. Kiwi speedsters Trent Boult and Adam Milne troubled the batsmen with the new ball took two wickets each. The fast bowlers kept the pressure on to restrict CSK’s score to 24 in the first over.
The two overseas batsmen Du Plessis and Ali were in good form recently playing in T20 Blast and CPL 2021 respectively. The Proteas batsman scored a century in one of his previous games whereas the southpaw scored a half-century in one of his previous two T20 appearances.
While wickets were falling at the other end, Ruturaj Gaikwad negotiated the opening fast bowling spells and did damage control for Ravindra Jadeja with an 81-run partnership for the fifth wicket. While Jadeja struggled to find boundaries, Gaikwad accelerated. The opener’s partnership with Dwayne Bravo turned out to be a game-changing one. The 39-run partnership from 16 balls got CSK back on track. Bravo contributed with a much-needed cameo of 23 runs from eight deliveries including three sixes.
The 24-year-old helped CSK post a fighting total of 156 for the loss of six wickets. The CSK opener carried his bat after scoring his IPL career-best 88-run knock from 58 deliveries featuring nine fours and four sixes. Gaikwad finished the innings with a six off Jasprit Bumrah. In the last nine overs, CSK scored 108 runs to recover from a terribly slow start.
