Chennai Super Kings were beaten comprehensively by Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday as Rohit Sharma's team first bundled out Dhoni's men for 97 and then chased the target down in 14.5 overs. The loss meant CSK are not out of contention for a place in the play-offs, just like the Mumbai Indians. The two most successful IPL teams will now contest to avoid the wooden spoon this season.
The victory was set up by Mumbai's bowlers who ensured CSK were off to a poor start and never recovered from the early wickets. But it wasn't an easy chase for the struggling MI batting line-up too as they were reduced to 33/4 at one stage with CSK's find of the season Mukesh Choudhary breathing fire.
In such a situation CSK needed its biggest weapon to fire but that didn't happen. Dwayne Bravo recently broke Lasith Malinga's record to become the highest wicket-taker in IPL history. But the West Indian great was unable to compliment the young Choudhary.
Former India opener Virender Sehwag was critical of Bravo's performance and went on to say that this performance proved that "Bravo can't pick wickets when he is needed to."
"Today we got to know that Bravo can't pick up wickets when the team needs him to. He picks wickets only when someone tries to attack him, otherwise he can't pick wickets and that is what we saw today.
"CSK needed Bravo to pick wickets and he came on to bowl in the 7th over but failed to strike as the batters were not taking any risks against him," Sehwag said in the post match analysis on Cricbuzz.
CSK continue to occupy the 9th position in the 10-team league, with 8 points from 12 matches. Mumbai Indians on the other hand are bottom of the table with 6 points from 12 games.