Twitter Reactions: MI hand CSK a humiliating defeat by 10 wickets to top the points table

It turned from bad to worse for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday in terms of their batting against the Mumbai Indians (MI). They had a last chance to revive their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign in order to make it to the playoffs and they botched it without putting much of a fight. The four-time champions were all over them with the new ball and then their openers chased down a paltry without fretting much over it.

MI’s stand-in captain Kieron Pollard opted to bowl first after winning the toss and what followed was the carnage with the ball. Trent Boult just played around with Ruturaj Gaikwad in the first over before pinning him in front of the stumps after which Jasprit Bumrah sent back Ambati Rayudu and N Jagadeesan in the next over. To make things worse, even Faf du Plessis wafted at a wide delivery only to edge it to the wicketkeeper.

At 3/4 in the second over, CSK had already bagged an embarrassing record of aggregating the lowest score from top four batsmen in the history of IPL. And the collapse continued with even Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni walking back. 30/6 soon turned 43/7 and at one stage, it felt as if CSK will register their lowest total in the cash-rich league.

However, that wasn’t to be thanks to Sam Curran who saved the day for the three-time champions. The pocket-sized dynamo proved his mettle with the bat yet again adding 28 runs with Shardul Thakur first and 43 with Imran Tahir to take CSK to a respectable total of 114 runs for the loss of nine wickets. He fought a lone battle in the middle smashing his second IPL half-century before getting out off the final delivery.

Ishan Kishan rips apart CSK bowlers

The 115-run target at Sharjah was never going to challenge the batting line-up as strong as of MI. With Rohit Sharma not playing, Ishan Kishan opened the innings with Quinton de Kock. MI innings went exactly in contrast with the CSK. Kishan, especially, was on fire thumping the opposition bowlers at will. He displayed his prowess and certainly made a case for him to bat at the top of the order.

New ball never really moved for the likes of Deepak Chahar and Josh Hazlewood apart from the first over and then with no pressure, the two southpaws played some of the best shots in their arsenal. After not picking early wickets, CSK were not in the game and clearly, it wasn’t their day either.

Ishan Kishan enjoyed his stay in the middle and made the most of the opportunity to open the batting. MI didn’t lose even a single wicket and finished the game in the 13th over of the innings with Kishan remaining unbeaten on 68 off 37 balls with six fours and five sixes to his name while De Kock slammed a sublime 46*. With this win, the defending champions also reached the top of the points table while CSK have been ‘officially’ ruled out of the tournament before the playoffs for the first time ever.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: