Follow UsWalking into this clash against Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians were firm favourites. That too at Chepauk, given their track record against the Men in Yellow. But from the toss, Rohit Sharma's Mumbai were on the wrong side of things, as Chennai bowlers put on a show with the new ball in the powerplay.
At 14/3, it was already a tough day for Mumbai but a brilliant show from Nehal Wadhera (64 off 51 balls) took the five-time IPL champions to 139. Only two other batters from Wadhera - Suryakumar Yadav and Tristan Stubbs - managed to put more than a double-digit score on board.
Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma at the post-match presentation admitted that their batting unit was well under-par here in Chennai. Rohit also added that he had pushed himself down the order to fill the gap left by Tilak Varma’s absence.
“Everywhere I guess. Our batters didn't put up enough runs. We had an off-day as a batting unit. (Reason behind him moving to No. 3) Just felt that was what was comfortable after losing Tilak. Thought we needed Indian bats in the middle overs but lost three in the powerplay,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation.
On the bowling front too, there wasn’t too much happiness for Mumbai, with Piyush Chawla being the only star. The veteran leg-spinner finished with figures of 2/25, carrying his IPL wickets tally this year to 17.
“Piyush is bowling well, others need to rally around him. That's what we expect, it's a team game. But we can take a lot of learnings and take it forward. Obviously, this year it's felt like there has been no home advantage. We need to play good cricket, next two home games are important. We need to do well to come back.”