Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar felt heartening to see the great bowling performances by the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) bowlers against the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Qualifier 1 of the IPL 2019 on last Tuesday (7th May) night at Chennai. MI bowlers helped the side to achieve a comfortable victory and advance to the IPL 2019 final. Tendulkar also praised Suryakumar Yadav and youngster Ishan Kishan for their impressive batting efforts.
MI reached the final of IPL 2019 after winning that match by six wickets (with nine balls remaining). After CSK captain MS Dhoni won the toss, he decided to bat first. However, the MI bowlers dominated in the first innings as CSK only managed to score 131/4 (20 overs).
CSK had a poor start in their innings as they once struggling on 65/4 (12.1 overs). Later, Ambati Rayudu (42*) and the skipper MS Dhoni (37*) fought very hard to manage a respectable fighting total.
MI spinners bowled impressively
MI bowlers bowled superbly in that entire innings. Praising the bowlers, Tendulkar specially mentioned the MI spinners who were economical as well as wicket-takers. Three MI spinners’ combined bowling figures in that innings were 11-0-60-4 with an economy rate of 5.45.
The young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar was the best bowler of the side with the bowling figures of 4-0-14-2 (economy rate 3.50). Meanwhile, the left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya and the off-spinner Jayant Yadav had the bowling figures of 4-0-21-1 (economy rate 5.25) and 3-0-25-1 (economy rate 8.33) respectively.
Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan guided MI to the successful chasing
Chasing down the 132 runs target, MI lost both their openers very quickly. After the captain and opener, Rohit Sharma (4 runs) lost his wicket on the second ball of that innings, another opener Quinton de Kock followed him soon after scoring just eight runs.
From that situation, Suryakumar Yadav handled that innings along with the youngster Ishan Kishan. Both had an impressive 80-run partnership for the third wicket that helped MI to chase down that target comfortably.
Though Ishan Kishan lost his wicket after scoring 28 runs (31 balls), Suryakumar Yadav remained intact to secure the victory. MI finally chased down that target in 18.3 overs after losing four wickets. Suryakumar Yadav was not out at the end on 71 runs off 54 balls with ten fours.
After that victory, MI batting mentor Sachin Tendulkar praised his boys on his official Twitter account.
He posted, “Heartening to see a great bowling performance by the boys, especially the spinners. @surya_14kumar’s innings along with @ishankishan51 was crucial in helping us win the game.”
Heartening to see a great bowling performance by the boys, especially the spinners. @surya_14kumar's innings along with @ishankishan51 was crucial in helping us win the game. ?#MIvCSK #OneFamily #MI @mipaltan pic.twitter.com/pNT5znwNpj
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) May 7, 2019
It was the third meeting between CSK and MI in the ongoing IPL 2019. MI won all these matches quite comfortably.
The three-time IPL champions MI will play the IPL 2019 final on this Sunday (12th May) night at Hyderabad (Deccan). They are now focusing on winning this trophy for the record fourth time.