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Mumbai Indians on Thursday snuffed out defending champions Chennai Super Kings' faint hopes of making the Indian Premier League play-offs with a five-wicket win in a low-scoring match.
Opting to bowl, MI shot CSK out for 97 with pacer Daniel Sams (3/16 from 4 overs) running though the MS Dhoni-led side's top-order with three quick wickets in a fiery opening spell, and then huffed and puffed to overhaul the small target of 98 with 31 balls to spare.
MI were four wickets down for 33 runs in the fifth over before Tilak Varma (34 not out off 32 balls) and Hrithik Shooken (18) calmed the frayed nerves with a 48-run stand for the fifth wicket. MI reached 103 for 5 in 14.5 overs.
Meanwhile, MI skipper Rohit Sharma lavished praise on Tilak and talked about his future prospect in Indian team.
"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," Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
With their eighth loss in 12 matches, CSK are out of reckoning for a play-offs berth. They remained at ninth position with eight points.
Already out of reckoning for a play-offs berth long time ago, MI remained rooted at the 10th and bottom place with three wins from 12 matches.
Both CSK and MI have two inconsequential matches left to be played. It will be the first time in IPL history that neither MI nor CSK would be part of the play-offs.
"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," Rohit further added.
