Riding on a resolute batting performances from Rohit Sharma and Surya Kumar Yadav, Mumbai Indians romped home in style against Chennai Super Kings to register their fourth win of IPL 2025 at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, April 20, 2025.
It was another forgettable outing for CSK as the five-time champions continued to struggle in the Powerplay, both while batting and bowling.
After being sent in to bat, they meandered along scoring just 16 off the first three overs. Although young Ayush Mhatre added impetus to the innings by scoring some quick runs, CSK once again went into a shell after his dismissal in the 7th over, scoring just 14 runs in the next four overs.
Butterfingers
Incisive bowling by Jasprit Bumrah (2-25 in four overs) and Mitchell Santner (1-14 in 3 overs) coupled with brilliant field efforts ensured CSK never recovered from the early blows.
Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja scored fifties to take CSK past 170, but it was never going to be a challenging total on a surface conducive to batting.
Mumbai, on the other hand, capitalised on CSK's poor bowling and a dismal show on the field. There were dropped catches, bizarre fumbles and even a missed DRS chance in the very first over bowled by Khaleel Ahmed.
Khaleel sent in an inswinging delivery and Ryan Rickelton, who was on 10 off 5 balls, got beaten on the inside edge and was struck on the pad.
Khaleel appealed half-heartedly and could not convince the skipper to review the on-field decision.
M S Dhoni, known for his sharp judgment and high success rate with DRS, missed it completely. To CSK's dismay, ball-tracking showed there was no inside edge and the ball would have smashed into the leg-stump.
Although Rickelton could not make full use of the reprieve, getting out for 24 off 19 balls, a wicket at that juncture could have helped the bowling side build some momentum.
Also, a wicket-less Powerplay might have prompted the MI think-tank to promote Surya Kumar Yadav to the No 3 spot, a decision which proved to be decisive for CSK as he terrorised the bowlers with his aggressive strokeplay and took the game away from Chennai.
In the 14th over bowled by Matheesha Pathirana, Khaleel's poor decision-making once again came to the fore, this time with a poor fielding effort.
Powerplay woes
The Sri Lankan banged in a full-length delivery and Rohit Sharma threw his bat but got it off the outer half of the bat towards third man.
The ball went straight to Khaleel in the deep and he took a reverse cup catch over his head, but could not keep his feet inside the rope.
He released the ball before falling over, but the replays showed a part of his boot touched the ropes when he had the ball in his hand.
Rohit was 58 off 40 balls then and went on to score 18 more run off the next five balls he faced to guide MI to a comfortable victory.
What could have been a dismissal ended up as a sixer and it summed up CSK's awful night.
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