Chennai Super Kings produced a great performance on Sunday to beat rivals Mumbai Indians by 20 runs despite being in a difficult spot very early in the contest. MS Dhoni's team was reduced to 24/4 within the powerplay with Ambati Rayudu also back in the hut, retired hurt, after getting hit on his elbow.
But opener Ruturaj Gaikwad played a mature innings as he stitched an important partnership (81 runs) with Ravindra Jadeja to push the total in excess of 100. Dwayne Bravo produced a late cameo, which included three maximums, and Gaikwad himself remained unbeaten on 88 to take the total of 156/6.
Mumbai were never in the chase as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually lost the match by 20 runs.
Former West Indies captain Brian Lara, in his analysis on cricket.com, felt that Mumbai Indians failed to close out CSK's innings despite being in complete control.
"I don't want to say that Mumbai Indians played bad cricket. You have to give credit to Chennai Super Kings. They (CSK) should have been done and dusted by the Mumbai Indians. There are a few things that Kieron Pollard did out there that I felt he didn't really press the gas at the right time and it sort of just came off the pedal and allowed Chennai Super Kings to get back into the match," Lara opined.
Lara though said that credit needed to be given to the trio of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo for pulling CSK out of a difficult situation, which he felt turned the match in favour of Dhoni's team
"But they played great cricket. Jadeja and Ruturaj Gaikwad put together a great partnership. Bravo with his cameo at the end there gave them something to fight with. You know those situations when you are down and out and all of a sudden you have a total to defend and the whole game changes in your direction. I think that's what happened.
"I felt Mumbai walked in after the half-way stage and felt, 'well, how did they get to 156? They should have never got to 156.' And they went into the batting part of it not feeling comfortable about it and it showed in their batting. A lot of false shots, a lot of shots in anxiety and it just caused their demise. But Chennai Super Kings played like champions. They played like a team that knew how to win from any situation and they did that." the West Indian legend said.