IPL 2018, MI vs CSK: 5 unnoticed things of the match

A high octane close encounter which lived up to its build-up and return of CSK in style thanks to the miraculous efforts of Dwayne Bravo who helped Chennai narrow their head to head record with Mumbai in the IPL opener.

While there are many notable contributions from either side including Dwayne bravo heroics, Pandya brothers partnership and sizable knocks from Ishan Kishan and Surya Kumar Yadav, Sportskeeda takes a look at the five unnoticed things from the match which had a considerable effect over the end result of the game for both sides.

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#5 Three over spells by the opening bowlers

Not often you would come across two bowlers completing powerplay overs which is sort of a marathon in T20s and Dhoni pulled it off with considerable success in the opening match of 2018 edition IPL.

Deepak Chahar and Shane Watson did the honours and both grabbed a wicket each with the latter picking the price scalp of Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma who never looked comfortable against swinging the ball. Dream debut!

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#4 Under bowled tweakers

CSK's spin trio bowled just five overs

Dhoni and his love for spinners is a well-documented one but surprisingly his trio of spin bowlers bowled only five overs and Jadeja took off after a single over spell.

Harbhajan Singh and Imran Tahir bowled a couple of overs each with the latter picking Mumbai's highest scorer Ishan Kishan and setting of his trademark sprint.

Bhajji didn’t do any wrong in his two-over spell bowling economically despite not picking a wicket. Considering the forgettable debut of Mark Wood, Dhoni could have used at least one of them for couple more.

#3. Thanks for coming Pollard

Pollard

Regarded as one of the powerful hitters of the cricket ball, Pollard was time and again underutilized in T20s both with bat and ball.

It has reached a new low today where he never had a chance to contribute either way. Pandya brothers were sent ahead of him in slog overs and the end result suggests he could have sandwiched between one of those.

While Krunal Pandya enjoyed a good game with the bat, Hardik Pandya struggles to keep the scoring rate up and struggled with the variations of Bravo who gave a brilliant all-round performance.

#2 Dream debut for Markande

Markande can expect to have a long run in the team

Fair play to Rohit Sharma for giving a heads up about Markande’s potential at the toss and he didn’t let his captain down and returned with the brilliant figures of 4-0-23-3.

The leg spinner’s debut may have similarities with the way Murugan Ashwin announced his arrival couple of years back under Dhoni and his variations proved too much to the CSK batters.

He took the prize wicket of Dhoni which almost closed the run chase until Bravo reverted it back and removed couple more including Rayudu and Chahar which put Mumbai firmly in the upper hand.

Markande could expect a long run in the team and with his control and variations, he might trouble more batsman in the coming games.

#1 Missed review which turned fatal

In the hindsight, Sharma’s decision of not reviewing a very close LBW call against Kedar Jadhav could not have cost much since he made the correct call next time to remove Dhoni, similar LBW shout with the help of DRS both from the wrong one of Markande.

Little he would have expected that it would haunt him for a while since Jadhav who retired hurt earlier came back in the end and finished the match for Chennai Super Kings.

Both the times, umpire failed to detect plumb LBW shouts and left with Sharma to make the decision to challenge it.