IPL 2022: All is not well in Chennai Super Kings camp

Chennai Super Kings blew the remote chance they had of reaching the playoffs when the batting crumbled badly against Mumbai Indians in the previous match.

Luck wasn’t with CSK. Two lbw decisions in the first couple of overs went against them.

There was no recourse to DRS as there was a power problem at the Wankhede Stadium.

This was tough on the side, especially on a spicy pitch which gave considerable assistance to fast bowlers.

In such conditions, a solid start was imperative to notch up a defendable score. To flop for a meagre 97 highlighted the major problem afflicting CSK right through the tournament.

Apart from the preceding few matches in which Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad had struck wonderful opening partnerships, CSK’s top-order batting had been a constant worry. Occasionally, Ambati Rayudu succeeded, and once in a while Robin Uthappa or MS Dhoni, otherwise the batting had consistently been a letdown.

It wasn’t different against MI. Conway was unlucky to be given lbw to a Daniel Sams delivery which clearly looked like it would miss leg-stump.

But Moeen Ali played a loose shot in the same over, Gaikwad, Uthappa and Rayudu couldn’t stick around long and before the Powerplay was completed, CSK were 29-5 and in the doldrums.

Though young pace bowler Mukesh Chaudhary did put the MI batting under duress in a superb opening spell, it was never going to be enough to win.