Mumbai Indians started the IPL 2024 campaign with three consecutive defeats, giving temporary relief to their supporters by winning two matches in a row. However, after two victories, they suffered another loss, this time to the Chennai Super Kings despite Rohit Sharma’s fantastic century.
Chennai Super Kings won the toss at the Wankhede Stadium and chose to bat first. Setting a target of 206 runs by losing four wickets in the allotted 20 overs, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad scored the most for the team with 69 runs. Playing aggressively, he hit five fours and five sixes in just 40 balls. With a thunderous inning of 66 runs off 38 balls, Shivam Dube remained unbeaten, smashing ten fours and two sixes. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, coming in to bat towards the end, contributed 20 runs off just 4 balls with the help of three sixes before being not out.
In reply, Mumbai Indians started their innings strongly, scoring 70 runs in the opening partnership. At the end, Ishan Kishan returned to the pavilion after scoring 23 runs off 15 balls, hitting three fours and one six. Rohit Sharma, the other opener, completed his personal half-century with seven fours and two sixes in 30 balls. He finished with a personal century, scoring 100 runs off 61 balls with ten fours and five sixes. In the end, Hardik Pandya remained unbeaten with a personal score of 105 runs, hitting eleven fours and five sixes in 63 balls.
Despite Mumbai’s effort, they fell short with 186 runs for 6 wickets in 20 overs. In a concise margin of 20 runs, Chennai Super Kings won the match.
It’s worth mentioning that Dhoni scored 20 runs for Chennai with the help of three sixes. The match was decided by those 20 runs. Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Dhoni’s three sixes led Chennai to victory.
Rohit Sharma, the lone warrior, despite his century, couldn’t secure a win for his team. From the other side, Hitman turned traffic hero. Suryakumar Yadav couldn’t open his account today. Tilak Varma scored 31 runs off 20 balls with the help of five boundaries.
Hardik Pandya got out after scoring 2 runs off 6 balls. Tim David scored 13 runs off 5 balls with two sixes. Romario Shepherd scored 1 run off 2 balls. Nabi remained unbeaten with 4 runs off 7 balls.
Chennai’s Pathirana spent 28 runs in 4 overs, taking 4 wickets. Tushar Deshpande and Mustafizur Rahman took one wicket each. Mathisha Pathirana was the best bowler of the match.”
