Picture Credit: IPL/Twitter
After much wait, the El Clasico of IPL finally took off at the DY Patil Stadium. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Ravindra Jadeja won the toss and opted to bowl first. His decision was proved right in the very first over of MI's innings as Mukesh Choudhary got rid of Mumbai's both openers within the first five balls.
CSK kept on building the initial momentum and did not allow any MI batter to settle. Choudhary took three wickets inside the powerplay and in no time, MI were reduced to 47/4 in 7.3 overs. It also looked tough for Mumbai in the middle overs with Maheesh Theekshana and Dwayne Bravo bowling tight lines. Although CSK were pretty dominant with the ball, they were ordinary with holding on to it.
CSK fielders dropped as many as four catches and MS Dhoni also missed a stumping chance which is a rare sight. This sloppy fielding from Chennai fielders did not go well with Amit Mishra as the former India spinner trolled them for missing so many chances.
Mishra shared a tweet after the end of the first innings where he drew a comparison between CSK's fielding and Shahid Afridi's batting to express his emotion. "Jadeja dropping a catch and MSD missing a stumping is like Shahid Afridi batting sensibly with eyes open. No one can believe it happened," tweeted Mishra.
Mumbai set 156-run target for Chennai
Despite losing some early wickets and struggling in the middle overs, Mumbai were able to post a fighting total. Tilak Varma was their saviour with his 43-ball 51. The 19-year-old played a gem of an innings to propel Mumbai to 155/7 in their 20 overs. Some support from Jaydev Unadkat at the fag end of the innings also helped Mumbai's cause. The pacer hit 19* runs off 9 balls with the help of a boundary and a six.
Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav helped avoid a collapse as he played a counter-attacking knock of 32 off 21 balls. Youngster Hrithik Shokeen also scored a run-a-ball 25 before perishing to a slower ball from Dwayne Bravo.