The first ball of the 11th over from Noor Ahmad during Mumbai Indians’ innings turned sharply, beat the outside edge of Tilak Varma's bat and went for four byes. MS Dhoni had kept for a straighter one and he missed the ball by miles.
A couple of deliveries later, the former Chennai Super Kings captain once again kept for a straighter one and this time the ball didn't turn. Suryakumar Yadav (29, 26 balls) had moved out of the crease a little and as he missed the ball, he was done. Dhoni whipped off the bails in a flash. Surya, captaining MI in this game in Hardik Pandya’s absence, was biding his time on a tricky Chepauk pitch. But ‘lightning’ struck.
Dhoni has been doing this all his life. But mind, he is 43 and occasionally plays cricket these days - during the IPL. He showed reflexes of a player half his age. It bordered on the unreal.
Noor, a 20-year-old left-arm wrist-spinner, was picked for Rs 10 crore by CSK at the mega auction. He opened his account for his new franchise and went on to spin a web around MI batsmen. He quickly accounted for Robin Minz with a wrong’un - Ravindra Jadeja taking the catch at long-off. Tilak Varma (31, 25 balls) was looking good, although like other batsmen, he was struggling to break the shackles of a middle-overs spin-choke. Noor did him in with a faster one that skidded off the surface and trapped the southpaw leg-before. That double-wicket over sapped the life out of MI's batting. Noor, though, wasn't done yet.
He clean-bowled Naman Dhir around his legs to claim his fourth, returning with 4/18 from four overs and setting up CSK's four-wicket victory with five balls to spare in their IPL opener.
Before Noor, there was Khaleel Ahmed, another new acquisition for CSK. The left-arm seamer started off by removing Rohit Sharma for a duck in the very first over after the hosts won the toss and sent MI in. Khaleel also took the dangerous-looking Ryan Rickelton's (13) wicket in the Powerplay to give his team an early advantage. He ended up with 3/29 from his four overs. The spin-pace duo of Noor and Khaleel restricted MI to 155/9, always pretty gettable irrespective of Deepak Chahar’s (28 not out, 15 balls) late cameo.
Ravichandran Ashwin played his part as well, on his return to his old franchise. Just 31 runs from four overs and the wicket of Will Jacks was a good effort from the veteran off-spinner. Jadeja returned with 0/21 from three overs. Going ahead, this spin-pack is going to give sleepless nights to the batsmen, especially at home.
When CSK batted, they needed to avoid an early collapse. Rahul Tripathi fell cheaply, but Ruturaj Gaikwad scored a breezy 53 off 26 balls before getting out to IPL debutant Vignesh Puthur. Along with Rachin Ravindra, the CSK skipper added 67 runs for the second wicket without taking too many risks.
A mini collapse followed, CSK losing Shivam Dube, Deepak Hooda and Sam Curran in quick succession. But Rachin oozed class and read the game well. He remained unbeaten on 65 off 45 balls. In Jadeja (17), he had a perfect partner.
The 17th over bowled by Trent Boult accounted for 10 runs followed by a 16-run over against Vignesh. That was that. Dhoni coming out to bat in the end was the cherry on top.
CSK maintained their recent dominance over MI - five wins now in their last six encounters. Early days for MI, but a defeat in the first match on the heels of a poor 2024 season might make the team management a little edgy. In Vignesh, however, they have a young player to look forward to. The left-arm wrist-spinner returned with 3/32 from four overs, a real positive for his team.
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