IPL 2021 | CSK vs MI: Hits and Flops as Pollard's belligerence overpowers even a mightier Super Kings

The Mumbai Indians put all their might on display against the Chennai Super Kings and completed the second-highest chase in the history of the Indian Premier League at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

Chasing a mammoth 219 runs, the Mumbai Indians were always in the game with the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock providing a perfect start. Later in the chase Kieron Pollard walked away from all the sluggishness he was struggling with ahead of this game to snatch the game away from the Super Kings.

The Super Kings batted valiantly on a placid pitch where balls were coming on to the bat very consistently but poor out-fielding and execution by bowling attack cost them the game they could have thought of having in the pocket.

Here, we’ll analyse the best and the worst performances of the contest between the Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians.

Hits

Kieron Pollard

No game is done against the Mumbai Indians till the opposition sides see the back of Kieron Pollard and in the game against the Super Kings, it was a full-on display of why.

Pollard walked out to bat when the men in blue found themselves in a precarious situation after the departure of de Kock at the halfway stage. By the end of the 10th over, the required run rate surged beyond two runs per ball and Pollard had no time to waste. 

But, at the same time, he also had to manage the pressure Krunal Pandya was in and hence picking moments to pounce was important. 

He waited for six balls to get going and started the onslaught against Ravindra Jadeja and hit him for three sixes in an over that ranging from the cover region to long-on.

The 13th over and the 14th over yielded 20 runs and 16 runs respectively and Pollard was up and running with the game from that point onwards. 

By the time Shardul Thakur came out to bowl in the 15th over, Pollard was in full flow and welcomed him with a brutal six that must have rung alarm bells in the MS Dhoni’s mind. Two more boundaries followed and Pollard reached a 17-ball fifty but there was no end in sight for the carnage and he looked hungrier and determined as ever to win the game.

What was more troubling for the Super Kings that he was not asked tough questions by the bowlers who kept on erring in execution barring some searing yorkers by Sam Curran. 

The Englishmen brought a halt to the Pollard run-making machine with yorkers one after another and accounted for the dismissal of Krunal Pandya.

However, there was nothing that MS Dhoni had up his sleeves that could send Pollard back to the pavilion except for the Shardul Thakur’s happy nack of picking match-turning wickets. Playing true to his reputation, he created a massive opportunity for the elimination of Pollard, but du Plessis of all people in the field dropped a sitter as per his standards to hand him a reprieve. 

When Curran delivered a sea-saw over in the 19th over of the innings that yielded 15 runs but also accounted for big wickets of Hardik Pandya and Jimmy Neesham, it was left to be a contest between Pollard’s mind and might against Dhoni’s tactics and Ngidi’s execution.

The latter looked promising at the start but soon unravelled with two rank loose deliveries. Ngidi was incontinent in nailing yorkers and found length under Pollard’s bat in between providing boundary balls. The situation came down to two runs off the final ball and it gives it a perfect anticlimax, Ngidi delivered a yorker that Pollard could not get under and ironically he won the Mumbai Indians the game running a rapid two which he never believed would have been possible in the initial part of the over and refused singles.

If Pollard would have failed to get that all-important couple on the last ball, his denial of singles would have come under scrutiny. But, the moment a fielder as safe as Faf du Plessis spilt a fairly easy chance, it was a clear sign that it was to be his night and nothing could have gone against his might and willpower.

Ambati Rayudu

Ambati Rayudu has been known for being a passionate man who puts all his brilliance and commitment on the line of the better of his side.

For a side that struggled to get going in the last edition of the IPL, to become the side that has hit the most number of sixes so far in the ongoing edition of the IPL has been some turnaround for the Super Kings. A lot of this revamped approach can be studied with the change in batting mindset Rayudu had carried with himself.

Rayudu has batted five times in the IPL 2021 including the innings against the Mumbai Indians and his strike rates have been 144, 0, 159, 200, and 267. His ability to take the game by the scruff of its neck has paved the way for the Super Kings’ revival in the IPL 2021.

He walked out to bat when the Super Kings were on the verge of squandering great momentum on the back of ballistic partnership between du Plessis and Moeen Ali. 

He was joined by Ravindra Jadeja soon enough and the duo had the responsibility of not only bailing the team out of a possibility of achieving an under-par score but also of putting a big score on a pitch that was not supposed to get worse in the second half. He got going with an intelligently placed boundary off Pollard in the 14th over and when the leg spinner Rahul Chahar missed his length in pursuit of beating him with his well-disguised wrong’un, Rayudu was quick to transfer his weight on the backfoot and deposit him in the stands.

The Super Kings were 136/4 at the end of the 15th over but the work was to be done if they have to get to a dominant position in the game.

Rohit Sharma brought back Dhaval Kulkarni who was not having a good comeback in the IPL and the Mumbaikar was on the money with variations in his pace to start off the over. As the first four balls did not go for any boundary, Rayudu had to manufacture something in desperation and he found a gigantic six walking down the track against Kulkarni. 

The pacer tried to change the pace of the ball but Rayudu was equal to the task and wicked the slower ball to lift it over the bowler’s head for an even longer six. The over yielded 17 runs and the Super Kings were on their way to a commendable total.

Rohit Sharma, the skipper always has the luxury of having two secured overs of Jasprit Bumrah saved for the end phase of the innings. After the onslaught against Kulkarni, Rohit had to go to Bumrah for the 17th and 19th over in search of wickets or drying up of the runs.

Neither of them worked as Bumrah too had to face a rare off-day on the field in the face of a brutal onslaught by Rayudu who was watching the ball like a hawk. He was sublime in picking the length of Bumrah’s deliveries and also positioning his shots absolutely perfectly.

Rohit Sharma’s pain doubled up when Bumrah too could not prevent the haemorrhage of runs. Trent Boult too faced the same treatment as did Bumrah and the Super Kings motored past the 200-run mark in the 19th over. 

Rayudu finished at an unbeaten 27-ball 72 while the trio of Bumrah, Boult and Kulkarni ended up conceding a total of 146 runs from their share of 12 overs.

Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali was brought into the Chennai Super Kings setup in a move to re-energise the top order in the wake of the crisis of sluggishness in the last edition, and so far in the competition, he has played the role perfectly.

He has been given the batting position of Suresh Raina so that the Super Kings do not miss an enforcer right from the start of an innings. 

In the game against the Mumbai Indians, the opening pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and du Plessis was separated in the first over itself, with the former continuing to struggle against the left-arm seamers.

Du Plessis was at it with maximum intent in his game as well but Moeen Ali’s counterattack against Trent Boult provided the Super Kings with an undaunting momentum. He first picked up a length delivery to hit for an innocuous six and followed it with an uppish off drive that was oozing with all the class Ali is known for.

Rohit brought his trump card Bumrah in the fifth over to stop Moeen Ali but the left-hander was ready for the challenge of his variations. As Ali was looking to maximise the powerplay overs, Bumrah preempted a big shot from the batsman and tried to devive him with a slower ball. Aware to the mind of the bowler, Ali picked the off paced delivery perfectly and held back his shot to swat the ball away over the square leg boundary.

There was no stopping the English all-rounder as no mode of bowling to the harmless seamers of James Neesham to the leg-spin and googlies of Rahul Chahar all were dismissed from his presence.

Bumrah was brought back to get the breakthrough but du Plessis made sure the misery was not over for either him or the Mumbai Indians. However, after conceding consecutive sixes to the right-hander, he cramped Ali for room around the off stump and handed Rohit Sharma with a big relief in the form of his dismissal that derailed the Super Kings’ batting effort for some delivered before Rayudu took over the mettle from them.

Flops

Jasprit Bumrah

When the Mumbai Indians bought Trent Boult before the IPL season last year, it was clear that the team was looking towards Jasprit Bumrah as an enforcer who will be assigned the task of doing the tough job instead of usual spells with the new ball and at the death.

The move of the division of labour between Boult and Bumrah paid rich dividends in the last season with Boult running riots among batsmen with the new ball while Bumrah employing all the tricks of his box to get the Mumbai Indians back in the game.

The formula has been working well for the side in this edition as well before they come up against the Super Kings. Boult provided the perfect start to them with the wicket of Gaikwad in the first over itself. 

Bumrah was brought in to the attack only in the fifth over to stop the onslaught of Moeen Ali and Faf du Plessis taking the game away from them. However, the night was not his and Ali got stuck into him with a sweetly timed six.

If the first over that yielded nine runs was not enough pain for the bowler, his second over turned out to be even sourer, but that time his nemesis was du Plessis who picked all his tricks well within time and hit him for consecutive sixes.

Two overs for 25 runs was not fitting for the bowler of Bumrah’s calibre but for the Mumbai Indians, the bad was about to get worse in the end phase of the game. Bumrah was the bowler to bowl the 17th and 19th over of the innings and he found his third nemesis of the night in the form of Ambati Rayudu, who just like du Plessis and Ali had done, picked all his variations from his hands and deposited him for a 21-run over. 

The damage was reduced to a mere 10 runs in his last over but a bowling figure reading 56 runs from four overs does not hold true for the quality Bumrah possesses, at least in the shortest format and hence Rohit Sharma would be ecstatic Pollard got them over the line on a night that was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

Lungi Ngidi

Lungi Ngidi has played in the Chennai Super Kings playing XI over the experience and variations of Dwayne Bravo for the pace and a possible X-factor he brings to the table. 

However, if the performance he put against the Mumbai Indians will continue for some more matches, Dhoni will have to live with a slower pace bowling attack that will give him control.

He had 16 runs to defend against Pollard who was batting in monstrous form and could have taken any bowler apart. However, his lack of execution under pressure in the last over left a lot to be desired for the Super Kings in the end.

Although a highly-intended last over will dominate the analysis of his bowling, his ineffectiveness was to the fore from the very first ball he bowled in the game. With international experience behind him, Ngidi should have been aware of Rohit Sharma’s comfortable length and should not have dished out a hit me the ball to start off his spell.

He was so disingenuous in his approach and tactics that he bowled short balls one after the other without having a square leg or fine leg positioned back on the boundary line.

However, he will get the benefit of the doubt as he came up against a raging batting line up of the Mumbai Indians on a fairly lifeless pitch where his other contemporaries such as Bumrah and Boult went for a lot of runs as well.

The Super Kings would rue the missed opportunities in the field, especially the dropped catch of Pollard by du Plessis that ultimately defeated them in the game while the Mumbai Indians would be relived at finding an escape on the back of Pollard’s brilliance when the bowlers had one of their worst times for a long long time.