Chennai Super Kings began their campaign in the 11th season of the IPL with a nail-biting victory over arch-rivals Mumbai Indians by one wicket at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Dwayne Bravo was simply exceptional and smashed a sensational knock of 68 off 30 deliveries which included three fours and seven gigantic sixes over the fence. He took the match away from Mumbai who had almost sealed the game at one point.
Brilliant knocks from Suryakumar Yadav and Krunal Pandya which helped Mumbai post a competitive total on the board at the end of their allotted 20 overs. The Mumbai Indians bowlers were terrific from the outset and kept on chipping away with the wickets at regular intervals.
Winning the toss, it was CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who put the hosts into bat.
Mumbai began in a sedate fashion and lost Evin Lewis pretty early on in the innings. It was a terrific out swinging delivery from Deepak Chahar which send back Lewis to the pavilion. Rohit Sharma looked totally out of touch and lost his wicket after making 15 off 16 deliveries which included a terrific six of Shane Watson over the cover region.
From there on, it was a composed innings from Suryakumar Yadav which helped them recover from the early losses. The local boy looked in terrific touch and struck some fantastic shots in the process.
He was dismissed by Watson after he made 43 off 29 deliveries which included six fours and a six. The elder of the Pandya brothers provided the late impetus.
Krunal looked in sublime touch en route to his knock of 41 off 22 deliveries. It included five fours and a couple of sixes. Hardik Pandya struggled at the other end and scored only 22 off 20 balls. It was mainly the innings of Krunal which propelled them to a score of 165 runs.
Chasing a more than competitive total, Chennai began well, as Shane Watson struck some good shots while Ambati Rayudu also looked in good touch. It was Hardik Pandya who provided the maiden breakthrough in the form of Watson.
Newcomer Mayank Markande was the pick of the Mumbai bowlers, as he made life difficult for CSK.
However, from a hopeless situation, it was a great knock from Dwayne Bravo which helped Chennai chase the total down in the penultimate delivery of the match. He smashed three sixes to arguably the greatest T20 bowler, Jasprit Bumrah in the 19th over.
However, the speedster brought life into the match after dismissing him on the last delivery of the over.
Kedar Jadhav, who went back to the pavilion after getting injured returned to finish the deal for Chennai. He did that in style despite missing out in the first three deliveries of the over.
He struck a scooped six of the 4th delivery and finished the match with a scorching cover drive.
Brief Scores
Mumbai Indians 165/4 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 43, Krunal Pandya 41*, Shane Watson 2/29)
Chennai Super Kings 169/9 in 19.5 overs (Dwayne Bravo 68, Mayank Markande 3/23, Hardik Pandya 3/24)
Chennai Super Kings won by one wicket (with a delivery to spare)
