Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings Highlights today Saturday, 1-05-2021 – 27th Match (N), Indian Premier League season 14th from Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.
MI won the toss and chose to bowl first.
Rohit: It looks like a good pitch and we’ve played here. Again, [we’ve] made some tactical changes – Dhawal Kulkarni in place of Nathan Coulter-Nile, and Jimmy Neesham in place of Jayant Yadav. The guys love playing the big games and you can judge your character in big games.
Dhoni: We were looking to field first also. The pitch has been surprisingly good. The wicket was got better for batting in the second half; it has been good at the start too. We’re playing the same side.
IPL 2021 Points Table
Mumbai Indians team: Rohit Sharma (capt), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Jimmy Neesham, Rahul Chahar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult.
Chennai Super Kings team: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (capt&wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Deepak Chahar.
Post match presentation
Dhoni: I think it was a brilliant wicket and I feel the difference between the two sides was the execution – how off we were. Without being too tough for the bowlers, catches do help. I felt we dropped catches at the crucial point. It doesn’t hurt much when you’re on the top of the table. If you look at how it really went, we were very off-target and against good batters who hit hard, it’s important to execute the plans.
Even if you don’t get hit for one or two sixes, in the 20th over that can win you the game. It hurts but the spirits will be up. When you’re under the pump, you learn more. Irrespective of where we are on the points table, we look at one game at a time. Ultimately, if you do that, the points table will take care of itself.
Rohit: Probably one of the best T20 games that I’ve been part of. One of the best innings also you can say from Polly. I know it’s always tough for the bowlers on a good pitch and smaller ground. We wanted to stay positive once we finished [bowling our] 20 overs. We got a good start and saw what happened. I mean we just had a brief chat [at the innings break] and said it was a good pitch. We had shot-makers in our batting line-up and we just wanted to take the game in the end.
Brilliant partnership at the top and Krunal-Polly partnership was also there. We backed Krunal [at No.4] and he’s coming off good form in domestic cricket. A left-hander always makes a difference even though they [CSK] have an offspinner. It suits our style of play and yes the bowlers will be under pressure, but that’s where you back the bowlers. There will be games where the bowlers will go for runs, but it’s important to back your core group of bowlers.
Pollard (but who else?) is the Player of the Match.
Pollard: First of all, I want to thank the almighty for watching over me and giving me the strength. So, yeah, started to bowl [laughs]. Obviously being a small ground, we thought it was the best time for the seamer to bowl. They have four overs of spin on a small ground and I looked to hit some sixes against spin.
I had to maximize that over from Jadeja. That would always keep us in the game. Each and every time as an individual you have to evolve. Guys bowl wide and a lot of practice goes into it. I can’t say I’m 360, but I’m maximizing it [hitting through the off side]. I was fortunate Faf gave me the chance. Good wicket, but the bowlers didn’t do well for us. It was about time the batting stood out. Two wins in the last two games hopefully give us the momentum into the back end of the tournament.
Match Timings: 14:00 GMT | 19:30 Local
Umpires – KN Ananthapadmanabhan, Nandan
TV Umpires – Chris Gaffaney
Match Referee – Javagal Srinath
Reserve Umpire – Krishnamachari Srinivasan
Match number – IPL Season 14th 27th Match
