MUMBAI: Dwayne Bravo has some serious Bollywood ambitions, and the West Indian played the perfect hero, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat against defending champions Mumbai Indians.
He cracked a whirlwind 68 off 30 balls (6x7, 4x3) to lead Chennai Super Kings to a dramatic one-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League on Saturday evening.
The Super Kings, who had been reduced to 84/6 at one stage, made an incredible late charge to finish at 169/9 in reply to Mumbai’s 166/4 to announce their return to the IPL fold.Wankhede was bouncing in blue on the night.
But when Bravo readied for attack, they cheered on their former man with gusto. The 17th over, by Mitchell McClenaghan, turned the match on its head as Bravo amassed 20 runs. He smashed two sixes a four and followed it up with two more sixes off Mustafizur Rahman.
In matter of a few balls, he changed the course of the match, his shot-making as bright as his ear and neck bling. Even though Bravo wasn’t able to complete the job, an injured Kedar Jadhav, who couldn’t really run between wickets due to a hamstring injury, came out and got the requisite seven runs for victory off the last over.
Bravo hadn’t just shone with the bat, but he had also been effective with the ball. His precise spell — 25 runs off four overs — was the reason that the hosts hadn’t been able to pile on the runs at the death.
Bravo’s knock though took away some of the sheen off an incredible debut by Mumbai Indians’ Mayank Markande. The 20-year-old leg-spinner dismissed opener Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni and Deepak Chahar and gave away only 23 runs off his four overs. All-rounder Hardik Pandya also had a good outing, returning figures of 3 for 24 and scoring 22 not out.
With none of the Mumbai batsmen sticking around for a long haul, the hosts had to do with a few crucial cameos.
Mumbai’s Ranji star Suryakumar Yadav was the highest-scorer with 43 off 29 balls and shared a 78-run partnership with youngster Ishan Kishan (40 off 29). Krunal Pandya’s late charge (41 off 22) helped Mumbai Indians take the run rate past eight.The Decision Review System, which was also making its first appearance at the tournament, was called into play when Chahar trapped Evin Lewis leg-before wicket. During the Chennai innings, the umpire used the review that eventually led to Dhoni’s lbw decision.
With the Chennai top order folding without a fight, it looked like Mumbai’s total was safe and sound. The wicket was still giving the bowlers some assistance and dew wasn’t playing as big a factor as Dhoni, who won the toss and elected to field, had hoped. But all of that changed once Bravo took charge.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 165/4 in 20 ovs (Suryakumar 43, Krunal 41 n.o; Watson 2/29) lost to Chennai Super Kings 169/9 in 19.5 ovs (Bravo 68, Jadhav 24 n.o; Markande 3/23, Hardik 3/24).
Hardik suffers twisted ankle
Hardik Pandya was carried off the field after twisting his ankle. The freak injury happened off the final delivery of the Mumbai Indians innings bowled by Dwayne bravo.