Rahane lights up Wankhede in El Clásico

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Ajinkya Rahane hit 61 runs off 27 deliveries as Chennai Super Kings beat Mumbai Indians by seven wickets. | Photo Credit: SPORTZPICS for IPL

Chennai Super Kings 159 for 3 (Rahane 61, Gaikwad 40*, Kartikeya 1-24) beat Mumbai Indians 157 for 8 (Kishan 32, Jadeja 3-20, Santner 2-28) by seven wickets

Chennai Super Kings were on song Saturday night, as Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja set up a seven-wicket victory over arch-rivals Mumbai Indians with 11 balls to spare in the 12th match of Indian Premier League 2023, here at the Wankhede Stadium.

The pitch offered some grip and turn to the spinners and saw CSK's ace spinner Jadeja and Mitchel Santner making full use of it, restricting Mumbai to 157/8. The left-arm duo proved successful for the Chennai-based side as they combined to grab five wickets for 48 runs. 

Mumbai had a bright start with Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan at the top, scoring at almost 10-per-over before local boy Tushar Deshpande skidded one past Sharma's defence, getting his outside edge and hitting the top of the middle and off stump. Kishan did not let the steam run off though, he took on the debutant Sisanda Magala, hitting him for five boundaries in his first two overs. With the last match winner for CSK, Moeen Ali out due to illness and ace seamer Deepak Chahar limping off after one over, the onus was on the experienced Jadeja to deliver and deliver he did - Kishan in his first over by holing him out on long-on, then Cameron Green, who was caught and bowled in his second over, while snagging another left-hander, Tilak Verma Leg Before Wicket in his final over. From the other end, Santner too maintained the pressure on the boys in blue, by grabbing the important wickets of Suryakumar Yadav and Arshad Khan.

Chennai in retrospect had a nervy start with Devon Conway giving away his wicket without scoring to Jason Behrendorff in a similar fashion as Sharma gave away his. But another Local boy in the fabled yellow colour of CSK stole the show. Rahane, who was taking over Robin Uthappa's role, went on a boundary-hitting spree in a Uthappa-esque style during the powerplay. He smashed rookie left-arm pacer, Arshad Khan for 6, 4, 4, 4, 4 before racing to a 19-ball half-century, setting CSK up for a net-run-rate boosting victory. While in-form batter Ruturaj Gaikwad played a watchful inning to guide the team home.

Chennai Super Kings notched up their second consecutive win in three matches, while Mumbai suffered their second loss on the trot. Chennai will be bolstered further with the injection of Sri Lankan bowlers - spinner Maheesh Theekshana and Medium-pacer Matheesha Pathirana joining the squad.

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