The crucial partnership between Tilak Varma and Hrithik Shokeen and a quick unbeaten 16 by Tim David helped Mumbai Indians register a third win against Chennai Super Kings here at Wankhede Stadium on Thursday. With this win, MI is currently at the bottom of the points table with six-point. CSK is at ninth position with 8 points. Chasing just a mere 98 runs target, Mumbai Indians got off a poor start, losing the opener Ishan Kishan on the fifth ball of the innings after Mukesh Choudhary’s delivery found the edge of his bat and landed in the hands of wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.

The wicket of the opener brought Daniel Sams to the crease to join hands with skipper Rohit Sharma. But the duo could not stand longer as Simarjeet Singh dismissed skipper Rohit Sharma for 18 runs leaving MI’s total at 30/2 in 3.3 overs. Tilak Varma then joined Sams on the field to keep Mumbai’s scoreboard moving. Things started to pick up for CSK after Mukesh Choudhary’s picked his second wicket of the match as he dismissed Daniel Sams for only one run. This wicket rattled Mumbai’s batting order leaving the team’s total at 33/3 in 4.3 overs. In the same over Choudhary struck again and sent the debutant Tristan Stubbs back to the pavilion without scoring a run.

At that point, Mumbai needed a steady partnership to achieve the target in the remaining balls. The duo of Hrithik Shokeen and Tilak Varma batted aggressively against CSK and smashed them all around the ground. The duo took their team’s total beyond the 50-runs mark in the 8.2 overs. Both the batter continued to pile up runs further. By the time ten overs ended, MI had recovered from the early hiccups and stood at a solid 66-4, with Varma (17*) and Shokeen (15*). The onslaught on the CSK bowling attack did not stop in the second half of the innings either, with the duo going all out against Dwayne Bravo, Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh.

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Tilak Varma, and Hrithik Shokeen help MI to register a win against CSK

Man in yellow took a sigh of relief as Moeen Ali dismissed Hrithik Shokeen on 18 runs. This brought Tim David to the crease who smashed a six in Moeen Ali’s over to take Delhi three runs closer to a win. In the 15th over of the match, David smashed another six off Moeen Ali’s delivery to register the third win of the season for Mumbai with five wickets in their hands. Earlier, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni (36*) was left-hanging as the lone warrior for his side, as a brutal pace attack by Mumbai Indians fast bowlers skittled out the Men in Yellow for 97.

It was a poor outing for CSK batters, as except Dhoni, Ambati Rayadu, Dwayne Bravo (12), Shivam Dube (10), nobody could touch double figures. Daniel Sams was breathing fire with his pace, as he triggered an early collapse of CSK batting line up that concluded with them getting all out below the 100-run mark. Put to bat first, Chennai Super Kings got off a terrible start as they lost their entire top order within the first two overs as the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah-Daniel Sams toyed with helpless CSK batters. The first one to depart was the in-form Devon Conway for a duck in the second ball of the innings, followed by Moeen Ali two balls later, contributing zero runs.

After the dismissal of Robin Uthappa in the second over by Bumrah, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ambati Rayadu attempted to rebuild the innings, only to be stopped by Sams, who dismissed Gaikwad for 7 off 6 with assistance from wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan’s safe hands, sinking CSK to 17/4. This brought captain MS Dhoni to the crease in the fifth over itself. The skipper hit a good boundary and Rayadu also looked good at the other end, but the latter was also dismissed by pacer Riley Meredith for 10 off 14 with another catch taken by Kishan. With this, half of CSK’s side was back in the pavilion, with the scorecard reading 29/5.