After a good start, Mumbai Indians (MI) managed just 22 runs and lost three wickets in the last three overs to be restricted to 162/9 by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) opener at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium here today.
Lungi Ngidi (3/38) struck twice in the penultimate over and Deepak Chahar (2/32) took one as the CSK put the breaks on the MI innings after the defending champions were 121/3 at the start of the 15th over.
After CSK captain MS Dhoni elected to field, captain Rohit Sharma (12) and his opening partner Quinton de Kock (33) got MI off to a quick start. The pair put up 46 runs in the first five overs before Rohit holed out to Sam Curran off Piyush Chawla (1/21). de Kock was dismissed in the very next over by Curran (1/28) with the latter hitting the ball straight down the throat of Shane Watson at midwicket.
Saurabh Tiwary (42) and Suryakumar Yadav (17) kept the boat steady for the next five overs with the former taking Ngidi to the cleaners in the 13th over. However, the wheels started to fall off for MI soon after that over with Ravindra Jadeja taking two wickets in the 15th over. Ngidi then came back in the 'death' overs to make amends for an expensive one earlier in the match as the likes of Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard failed to fire for MI.
Brief scores: MI 162/9 (Saurabh Tiwary 42, Quinton de Kock 33; Lungi Ngidi 3/38) vs CSK
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