CSK vs. MI (Match #1) – My Thoughts

It feels great to be back and I am here once again with another cricket blog. It’s currently IPL season so you see more of these for the next two months.

CSK played the starter match today and I would like to give you all a run down of all my inner thoughts during this match and some predictions along with them. I know this post is quite long but bear with me. I just poured like 4 hours of mind voice into this post.

I might be making these types of match reviews ONLY for CSK matches since my schedule is quite tight lately due to college applications.

First of all, I woke up at like 7 am to watch this match since I live in the United States. Now, I am writing this at like 10 at night and my eyes are already sore before I begin. So, here we go.

Team XI Predictions

I was going through instagram and I saw many people trying to guess the 11 players that would play during this first match.

As far as my guesses go, I expected Faf du Plessis to take over the 1st down slot for Suresh Raina and I mentioned that in my last blog if you are interested in reading that.

What Are The Chances of CSK Winning IPL 2020?

Imran Tahir

However, just like many of you, I was really confident that Imran Tahir would play today. I felt really bad watching him sit in the pavilion. That being said, I do feel that Piyush Chawla filled in that role quite well today by breaking the early partnership and by keeping the economy rate really low. Today, we saw Jadeja and Chawla rotating during the middle overs. But, I would like to see Imran Tahir and Chawla doing that in the future.

Lungi Ngidi

Another surprise to many was having Ngidi on the team today. Now that I think about it, it makes sense that he is back since he is out of his injury from last year. So, it was quite unexpected but it was nice to see him once again playing in the yellow jersey.

Sam Curran

This was something that I didn’t see many people choose, but I saw this coming ever since the auction. He is an amazing bowler who picked up a hat-trick last year and a man who is perfect for middle order since he has such a high strike rate. Also, with current conditions, he is pretty much one of the only players in the CSK side who is in form from playing matches for England.

So, not a surprising decision but disappointed that many people didn’t see it through.

1st Innings

I didn’t watch the toss since I was sleeping but I was relieved when I heard that CSK is chasing. It’s a common formula and since Mumbai has a dangerous batting side, it’s best to chase. Also, the due kicked in during the late stages of the match which helped the CSK players.

When I saw Rohit Sharma hitting a four on the first ball along with how rusty Deepak Chahar was, I woke up completely from my sleep and focused on the match. This seemed to get worse as Ngidi, the man with a 6.00 economy rate, gave 18 runs in his first over.

I knew that MI is strong with the bat, but the first 5 overs was a pain to watch. However, Dhoni began to change things up and brought Piyush Chawla inside the powerplay. I was a bit satisfied that Dhoni had some strategy and it worked like a charm. Chawla striked out the Hitman and Sam Curran took out De Kock in the next over.

Suryakumar Yadav hit a few boundaries but Chahar had him as he found rhythm in his bowling. To get this off my chest, I didn’t expect Tiwary to even play today, forget him hitting the most runs for the Mumbai side. I thought CSK would have him early on, but he kept going for a while.

Other than Dhoni’s captaincy, CSK was able to restrict that 20+ runs towards the end due to the amazing catches like Faf du Plessis. I saw it live and he caught with such ease. Not only was he able to throw Tiwary out, but he also struck Hardik Pandya after he smacked 2 sixes. I personally felt that Pandya was in great form today and he could have destroyed CSK if du Plessis didn’t catch that one.

Even after these two consecutive wickets, I was still on my toes as the CPL winning captain Kieron Pollard came into the field. We all know that he is now in form along with the fact that he has turned many matches against CSK.

Well, wind was on CSK’s side as Ngidi took revenge for that 18 runs over by picking up 3 quick wickets including Pollard. From there, things went smoothly for the CSK as they took 9 wickets and Bumrah scored a few singles in the last over.

2nd Innings

There is something that I wanted to share about CSK’s batting:

We all know how no top order batsman in CSK was in form last year. This pushed Dhoni to do the job where he got so exhausted that he wasn’t at his best during World Cup. Many complained about his slow batting but I would just say that the pressure from IPL just got to him at that point.

That being said, Trent Boult and Patterson strikes early where CSK is 6-2

Mind Voice: “DEJA VU!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS???”

I didn’t want to see 2019 all over again where Dhoni has to step up. To make things worse, Dhoni hasn’t played for more than a year and he might need some time to fix in.

Coming back, Murali Vijay got out even when the umpire gave the wrong call. To be honest, I was kinda happy that he was gone since he is a hasty player compared to someone like Faf du Plessis who is more calm.

He is that type of player who takes a run for absolutely no reason and he might get du Plessis out. Even today, when Vijay played the very first ball, he made Watson take a very hesitant call for a single run which the commentators pointed out.

Moving on, I expected Faf du Plessis to perform well today since he knows how to play under pressure and he has done it single handedly before during the 2018 Quarterfinals against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

However, I was super stoked to see Rayudu put on an amazing show. Faf complimented him where Rayudu took some big shots and the no-ball from Bumrah (which was a treat).

Speaking of the no-ball, I am really amazed how they brought cool technology to detect no-balls with a camera instead of the umpire. We know that IPL has had some controversies with no-balls before and it’s nice to see that technology is eliminating them. Well Done!!!

All I was hoping that the MI spinners don’t create a breakthrough during the middle overs and good thing it never happened.

When we reach the death overs, it was quite evident that Rayudu was tired and his big swing didn’t work. But, that doesn’t matter as he delivered his part of the job and kept a good run rate.

I was expecting Dhoni but Jadeja walked in. He had some fluid shots but fell for the spin from Krunal Pandya. Everyone was predicting Dhoni again but we saw Sam Curran.

It was the 18th over and I realized that there are only 3 bowlers: Krunal Pandya, Bumrah and Boult. We all know Dhoni doesn’t play spin too well and even if Sam Curran gets out, he will probably face seam instead of spin. Also, the commentators stated that Sam Curran is a left-handed batsman and rotating that would confuse the bowler.

This like how the commentators said, Pandya soon lost his line where Sam Curran whacked away a full toss for six. Curran proves his worth to be on the team by hitting 2 sixes and a four where he got out at 18 runs for just 6 balls. That’s a whopping 300.00 Strike Rate!!!

When Sam Curran made the run chase simpler, this put the weight off of Dhoni and du Plessis. There was a shout for Dhoni on his very first ball which turned out to be a good review for him. To be honest, I believe that Mumbai just called for it because it’s Dhoni. That ball was nowhere close to the glove or the bat where the ultraedge didn’t even pick up background noise 🤣

Although Dhoni doesn’t get the chance to score any runs from the 2 balls that he played, Faf gets it done with a couple of boundaries in the last over.

DON’T FORGET TO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS MATCH & ANY COMMENTS THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE REGARDING MY REACTIONS!!!

If you have any questions/thoughts about this match or if you just had something to say, feel free to comment them down in the comment section below and I will get back to you ASAP.

Peace Out!!!

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