Ajinkya Rahane blitzed his way to a sensational half-century to inspire Chennai Super Kings to a seven-wicket win with eight balls spare over Mumbai Indians in their Tata Indian Premier League match at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on Saturday.
CSK restricted Mumbai to 157 for eight after asking the hosts to bat first. CSK needed only 17.1 overs to chase down the total.
This is CSK's second win in three matches, and it puts them in the leading group. Before this match, CSK's last win at the Wankhede was in 2018. Mumbai still leads the head-to-head with seven wins against CSK's four. Mumbai is still to register a win in IPL 2023.
Rahane was in imperious form as he struck seven fours and three sixes on his way to a brilliant 61 off 27 deliveries. The 34-year-old arrived at the crease in the first over, following the early dismissal of Devon Conway.
The advantage gained by Mumbai by taking Conway's wicket vanished almost immediately. Mumbai-born Ajinkya Rahane put CSK back into the driving seat by bludgeoning 23 runs off the fourth over.
For the first time this season, orange cap holder Ruturaj Gaikwad (40* from 36) had to stand back and watch a CSK teammate put on a show. Gaikwad had the best seat in the house for the Ajinkya Rahane show. While Gaikwad was on eight runs off 12 balls, Rahane had sped to a 19-ball 50, the fastest half-century of the 2023 edition of the IPL so far.
Rahane and Gaikwad gave CSK what Mumbai lacked during their innings, and that is a partnership worth more than 50 runs. Mumbai's highest partnership was the 38-run opening stand between Rohit Sharma (21) and Ishan Kishan (32). There was a tie for the second-highest partnership. Mumbai had three partnerships worth 26 runs. One of them had the big-hitting Tim David (31).
CSK's second-highest partnership was between Gaikwad and Shivam Dube (28) and was worth 43 runs. That is five more runs than Mumbai's highest partnership. The third-highest partnership for CSK was a 33-run stand between Gaikwad and Ambati Rayudu (20* off 16). Part of the reason for this was Mumbai's lack of spinners of the same calibre as Ravi Jadeja and Mitch Santner.
Kumar Kartakeya, Hrithik Shokeen and Piyush Chawla did not control the middle overs in the same manner as Jadeja and Santner.
Between the two of them, Jadeja (three for 20 in four overs) and Santner (two for 28 in four overs) took five wickets for 48 runs in eight overs as they put the screws on Mumbai's batters after their explosive start. Jadeja also had the best bowling figures in the match.
Kumar Kartakeya was Mumbai's best bowler with one wicket for 24 runs in four overs. Jason Behrendorff was the only Mumbai pacer who looked slightly threatening, while CSK batters had an easier time navigating Cameron Green and Arshad Khan.
MUMBAI INDIANS:Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Cameron Green, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tim David, Tristan Stubbs, Arshad Khan, Hrithik Shokeen, Jason Behrendorff, Piyush Chawla
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS:Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk) (c), Shivam Dube, Dwaine Pretorius, Deepak Chahar, Mitchell Santner, Sisanda Magala, Tushar Deshpande.