CSK and MI have been biggest rivals in IPL over the seasons. Both the teams have won IPL titles for 5 times each and hence, their clash is known as El Classico whenever they play each other. In IPL 2024, the El Classico clash has delivered big excitement once again. CSK won the match with their stars like MS Dhoni, Shivam Dube, Matheesha Pathirana and Ruturaj Gaikwad delivering big time.
At Wankhede, Mumbai Indians aka MI won the toss and elected to field first. Ajinkya Rahane(5) and Rachin Ravindra(21) did not give big start to CSK. Ruturaj Gaikwad took on the onus to give a strong backbone to the innings. He scored 69 runs from 40 balls and at the other end, Shivam Dube took on MI bowlers scoring 66 runs from 38 balls.
Daryl Mitchell failed to give a big finish scoring only 17 runs from 14 balls. In the last over, with only 4 balls remaining, MS Dhoni came out and scored 20 runs from those 4 balls with three back to back sixes. This took CSK score to 206/4 from something aroung 185-190. Jasprit Bumrah did not take any wickets and this aspect worked in favor of CSK, too.
In the chase, Rohit Sharma took the onus upon him as other batters failed. Ishan Kishan(23) and Tilak Varma(31) gave him good support but MI needed much bigger contributions. Tim David(13), Suryakumar Yadav(0), Hardik Pandya(2) and Romario Shepherd(1) failed to score at the level MI needed. And even Rohit Sharma went through highs and lows in his century, 105 run innings from 63 balls.
This aspect also hurt momentum of MI and they scored only 186/6 despite Rohit carrying his bat throughout the innings. Matheesha Pathirana(4/28) broke the back of MI with his tight bowling in the middle overs and in the final stages. Hence, he won the Player of the Match award. MI has been left with many questions post this loss.
