Twitter Reactions: CSK script a perfect jailbreak after top-order harakiri

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have got off to a brilliant start to the second leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They breezed past the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) who clearly missed Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya on the day. Nevertheless, one has to give full credit to CSK and especially Ruturaj Gaikwad who almost single-handedly propelled his team to 156 runs after they opted to bat first.

The horrors of IPL 2020 were back for the Men in Yellow when they were struggling at 24/4 with Ambati Rayudu also back in the hut after getting hit on the arm while facing Adam Milne. The score was only after powerplay and clearly, there looked no way forward for CSK. But Ruturaj Gaikwad was batting calmly at the other end and didn’t lose his shape despite looking at his teammates walking back to the pavilion.

The resurrection of the innings began with Ravindra Jadeja joining him and the duo batted well. Gaikwad played cautiously for some time before unfurling some delightful strokes in the middle overs. He threaded the field nicely especially against the spinners and accelerated at the perfect time.

And when the death overs arrived, Gaikwad was ready to go berserk. He displayed a range of strokes and none of them were plain slogs or mishit. To top it all, the youngster smacked swept Jasprit Bumrah in the last ball of the innings for a six which was an absolute delight to watch. Dwayne Bravo’s 23-run cameo also helped CSK as they posted 156 runs in 20 overs scoring 108 runs in the last nine overs.

MI struggle right through the chase

Mumbai Indians, after reducing CSK to 24/4, clearly didn’t expect the onslaught and were on the backfoot. Quinton de Kock started well to get the innings going but Deepak Chahar pinned him in front of the stumps. The same bowler sent back Anmolpreet Singh as well soon. Suryakumar Yadav tried to play aggressively from the word go and paid for it.

MI stayed in the hunt right through but kept losing the wickets. There was no significant partnership in the middle. Saurabh Tiwary and Kieron Pollard threatened for some time with a 29-run stand. MS Dhoni‘s mastermind decision to hand Josh Hazlewood worked then as the Aussie bowler jagged one back into Pollard to pin him lbw. The game turned on its head there and there was no looking back for CSK then.

Tiwary stuck it out in the middle scoring a fine half-century but looked tired at the fag end of the innings. He played a few lusty strokes but never looked like taking his team home with no credible batsman at the other end. MI, in the end, could only reach 136 runs in their 20 overs to lose the game by 20 runs.

CSK have got their sixth win of the season but they will be worried more about Ambati Rayudu and Deepak Chahar’s fitness. Meanwhile, MI will have to step up soon and they would want Rohit and Pandya back in their line-up for the next encounter.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: