Dhoni the finisher rescues Chennai Super Kings in last-ball thriller
Pretorius and Choudhary play equally important roles in victory; Mumbai have now lost seven
Pretorius and Choudhary play equally important roles in victory; Mumbai have now lost seven
Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: @PeterDellaPenna
11.27 pm The respect for Dhoni is immense. Pollard, Bumrah and a number of others from the Mumbai Indians squad come up to shake the legend's hand after his latest Houdini act at the death.
Tinura: "You can write off anyone in the world. But NEVER...EVERrr..write off legendary DHONI...Don't anyone DARE...!"
SPras: "The legend of Dhoni lives on.. goosebumps!!"
Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma: "In the end it was a great fight from us. We were right in the game. After batting not so well, I thought the bowlers kept us in the game all through. But in the end, we all know how calming MS Dhoni can be and he took them home. It's hard to put a finger on that [top order problems]. If you lose three or a couple of wickets up front, it's always going to be tough. You're always playing that catching [up] game. But in the end we got to a very reasonable target where we thought with the ball we could put them under pressure. I thought till the last over, we had them under pressure. But in the end, MS and Pretorius, they were quite calm and got them home. We want to back ourselves with the ball. Whatever we have in front of us, we back ourselves to defend it. The pitch was good. We could have got more runs there, but as I said we lost a few wickets up front and it was always going to be hard after that to play freely."
CSK's Dwaine Pretorius: [On batting with MSD] "Unbelievable. He's the master at finishing off games and he did it again tonight. [On his boundaries off Bumrah] I wanted to go for that scoop shot in the first over against Bumrah, but [Dhoni] said, 'Wait, wait, wait'. I waited and the next over I said, 'Now I'm going.' And he said to go for it. I went for it. We knew we need five boundaries, no dots and we could get over the line tonight. I'm working hard and just glad I could contribute to a win to the team today and hopefully we can win a few more. "
CSK captain Jadeja: "Actually we were very tense, the way the game was going, but at some stage we knew that the great finisher of the game was there and if he played to the last ball, he can definitely finish the match. He showed the world that he's still here and he can finish the game. [On Rayudu and Bravo] We have plenty of experience in our team so they know when to perform and what to do. So if we're not winning the game, still we look to be calm and relax. I don't take fielding for granted and still work on it. We need to do some work on our fielding and take catches because we can't keep dropping catches in every game."
Player of the Match is Mukesh Choudhary. [Translation into English] "Mine has been a different journey, I never thought I'd play cricket. I was at a boarding school in Pune and there I used to play all sports in the one hour of sports period everyday. In grade 11 and 12 I started losing interest in studies so picked up cricket and that worked out. I'm not just a powerplay bowler but have to swing it while bowling in that period. (On Kishan's dismissal) I've been working on my wrist position everyday with the coaches for my swing, it's been about a month now. I had been trying from the first game and it finally showed. There's no pressure, all the seniors and stars help me in the dressing room and ask me to play freely."
That'll do it for our live coverage of tonight's last-ball thriller. Stay tuned for post-match coverage on the site. On behalf of my commentary partners Sidharth Monga and the scoring team, I'm Peter Della Penna. Come back tomorrow for more IPL action. Until then, take care! I'll sign off with this stats gem from one of our stats men, Sampath Bandarupalli.
"Most target runs chased in the last four balls in IPL: 17 - GT vs PBKS, 2022 (Tewatia and Miller) 16 - RCB vs PWI, 2012 (ABD and S Tiwary) 16 - RPS vs KXIP, 2016 (MS Dhoni) 16 - CSK vs MI, 2022 (MS Dhoni)"
Khalid : "Bottom of the table or what El Classico is El Classico!"
Four off the final ball for the win needed by CSK.
16 off 4 has become 6 off 2.
Samrat Ahuja: "Surely not again Dhoni, not again!!"
Dhoni on strike with 16 off 4 balls to win.
D Pretorius lbw b Unadkat 22 (23m 14b 2x4 1x6) SR: 157.14
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