Images from Friday's IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, in Chennai.
Rohit Sharma's first half-century of the season was the cornerstone as Mumbai Indians easily beat Chennai Super Kings by 46 runs in the Indian Premier League match, in Chennai, on Friday.
The Mumbai Indians skipper top-scored with 67 from 48 balls, inclusive of six fours and three sixes, even as New Zealand left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner starred with the ball for Chennai with brilliant figures of 2 for 13 from his four overs to restrict the visitors to 155 for four.
In reply, Chennai's top order failed badly. They were reeling at 45 for 4 by the eighth over before opener Murali Vijay (38 off 35 balls), Dwayne Bravo (20 off 17) and Mitchell Santner (22 off 20) attempted a fightback and scored some runs to avoid an embarrassing defeat.
Lasith Malinga was Mumbai's most destructive bowler, finishing with figures of 4 for 37 off 3.4 overs, as CSK were bundled out for 109 in 17.4 overs, the defending champions' lowest total at home.
Krunal Pandya (2 for 7 in 3 overs) and Jasprit Bumrah (2 for 10 in 3 overs) also played a crucial role with the ball.
The victory lifted Mumbai to second on the league table, behind Chennai, with 14 points from 11 games. Chennai, whose winning run of five games at home this season ended with the defeat, have 16 points and have played a game less.
Shane Watson, who hammered the Sunrisers Hyderabad attack into submission in Tuesday's game, hit Malinga for two fours but clipped a poor delivery from the Sri Lankan straight into the hands of Rahul Chahar at short fine-leg. He fell for eight in the first over to leave CSK in a spot at nine for one.
Skipper Suresh Raina wasn’t comfortable during his brief stay, before skying one to Suryakumar Yadav off Hardik Pandya for just two.
Ambati Rayudu, who has found runs hard to come by this season, endured another failure. He was castled by Krunal Pandya for a duck with a delivery that came in with the arm as CSK slipped into further trouble.
Kedar Jadhav's poor form continued as he too played on off Krunal Pandya.
Earlier, sent in to bat by stand-in captain Raina, after Mahendra Singh Dhoni was ruled out of the match due to fever, Mumbai Indians couldn't capitalise on a good start, faltering against some accurate bowling by the home team.
From 103 for two in 13 overs, they could only muster just 52 runs in the last seven overs.
The big-hitting Hardik Pandya (23 not out off 18 balls, 1x4, 1x6) and Kieron Pollard (13 off 12 balls, 2x4s) were unable to score big but still did well to get Mumbai past the 150-run mark.
Rohit led from the front with a typically elegant half-century, his first of the season, during which he hit some big sixes and looked in control for the most part.
He was caught by Murali Vijay at long-on off Santner, who bowled a brilliant spell.
Krunal Pandya, pushed up the order in a bid to speed up the scoring rate, fell for just one run, caught by Santner in the deep off Imran Tahir's bowling.
West Indies power-hitter Evin Lewis (32 off 30 balls, 3x4s, 1X6) added 75 runs with Rohit for the second wicket and took the attack to the CSK bowlers.
The fast-improving Deepak Chahar got the first wicket for CSK in the form of the dangerous Quinton de Kock (15 off 9 balls, 1x4, 1x6) with a slower delivery.
The South African batsman's attempt to turn the ball to the leg-side resulted in a top-edge, which was taken by Ambati Rayudu, donning the big gloves in place of the indisposed Dhoni.
Earlier, CSK won the toss and elected to field but were dealt a big blow ahead of the match with captain Dhoni missing out due to fever.
Faf du Plessis and Ravindra Jadeja also missed out, and Santner, Murali Vijay and Dhruv Shrorey came in.
