IPL 8 Match report: 5 Ws after 1 H

Brendon McCullum feels a compulsion to unleash his ‘forehand jab’ when a ball is pitched short and wide, and is going over his right shoulder. Mitchell McClenaghan is well aware of his national team captain’s likes and dislikes, having bowled to him many times in the nets. He lured McCullum into his favourite shot, hoping to get the better of him with the away movement and extra bounce. The Chennai Super Kings opener expectedly didn’t hold back. The ball flew into the crowd.
Caution is not in McCullum’s DNA, when he’s playing the shortest format of the game. His cavalier approach ha

s made him so attractive to watch. But sometimes discretion, perhaps, is a better option. He didn’t change his game even after being dropped on seven, top-edging a long-hop from J Suchith to Harbhajan Singh at backward square leg, who floored the catch.

The slice of luck made McCullum even more aggressive. He welcomed R Vinay Kumar with three consecutive fours. On the final ball of the over, he attempted a maximum but didn’t get his timing right to a short delivery. Mumbai Indians celebrated wildly as Hardik Pandya accepted the sitter at deep mid-wicket.

It was the most important wicket from the visitors’ point of view after they were asked to field on a spin-friendly surface. The breakthrough was followed by a mini-collapse. Suresh Raina mistimed a lofted drive off Suchith to Pandya at wide long-on. Harbhajan removed Dwayne Smith – another catch for Pandya. 65/3 after 9.1 overs and Chennai needed a partnership.

Dhoni started off slowly and after hitting a six off Harbhajan, once again concentrated on picking up the singles and twos. Faf du Plessis was getting into the groove at the other end, but a brilliant one-handed catch by Lendl Simmons at short fine leg off McClenaghan cut short his innings. Dhoni was still not ready to open his shoulders. His team badly needed someone to throw caution to the wind.

Hard hits by Negi

Pawan Negi came ahead of Ravindra Jadeja and justified his promotion. Marchant de Lange did a fantastic job as Lasith Malinga’s replacement, bowling a maiden and conceding only five runs in his first two overs. Negi showed little respect when the South African quick came back for his second spell. Three fours in a row and the charge was on. McClenaghan was dispatched over the long-on boundary, Vinay was slapped to the cover fence.

Two dropped catches in the final over took the young left-hander to 36 off 17 balls before he was run out. He added 54 runs in 4.4 overs with Dhoni for the fifth wicket. The skipper remained unbeaten on 39 off 32. Chennai finished at 158/5 in 20 overs.

Harder hits off Negi

The beauty of the IPL is that it throws up new heroes. Players, inexperienced and hitherto unknown, become stars overnight. It was Pandya’s night at Chepauk on Friday. But before that, the charge and the choke.

Eighty-four for no loss at the halfway stage and Mumbai were cruising. Parthiv Patel was batting very well with Simmons giving him good company. Ravichandran Ashwin, back after a four-game injury lay-off, changed the sequence. The off-spinner first dismissed Patel with du Plessis taking a good catch at long-on, and then, two balls later, forced Simmons to a miscue to Smith at deep mid-wicket.

Dwayne Bravo showed terrific presence of mind to run Kieron Pollard out in the next over. Game on.

Dhoni tightened the noose. Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu were struggling to force the pace. The Mumbai captain lofted Bravo to long-off, but du Plessis of all people dropped the catch. Rayudu tried to break the shackles with a couple of sixes off Nehra, but Bravo eventually got the better of Rohit with another slower delivery as Raina safely took the skier.

The equation came down to 30 off 12 balls. Mumbai were on the back foot as Negi started the penultimate over. Pandya was facing him.

First ball, and the 21-year-old with an experience of only 23 T20 matches, launched into it. He got a six over long-on. He attempted a reverse lap in the next ball but missed it. The third ball was pushed through the air, Pandya cleared his front leg and sent it into the stands over long-off. The next one went on the other side; a six over long-on. Rayudu finished the over with another six after Pandya ran a bye off the fifth ball. Twenty-five runs from that over and it was game, set and match Mumbai. A Pandya special breached the Chepauk fortress. It was Mumbai’s fifth win on the bounce and Chennai’s first home defeat following a 10-match winning streak.