Chennai, Mar 23: Left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad picked 4-18 while left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed took 3-29 as Chennai Super Kings restricted Mumbai Indians to 155/9 in their 20 overs in the second match of Sunday's double-header in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here.

On his CSK debut, Noor bamboozled the MI batters with his mastery to pick the best figures by a spinner from his team against the five-time champions. On the other hand, Khaleel was his best in power-play to push MI on the backfoot.

Despite rebuilding efforts from Tilak Varma (31) and Suryakumar Yadav (29), MI weren’t at their best in terms of shot selection, as CSK’s spinners stemmed the run-flow in middle overs. It took a cameo of 28 not out off 15 balls from Deepak Chahar to take them past 150.

Electing to bowl first, CSK had a superb start, thanks to Khaleel’s brilliance in power-play. With an inswinger on stumps, Khaleel had Rohit Sharma flicking straight to mid-wicket and dismissing him for a four-ball duck. Ryan Rickelton hit three boundaries, before playing on to his stumps off Khaleel to be out for 13.

Ravichandran Ashwin struck in his first over as a CSK bowler after nearly a decade as Will Jacks tried to loft off his carrom ball, but failed to get any power and was caught at mid-off for 11. Amidst this, Suryakumar laid the stage for MI’s fightback with a four each off Ashwin and Nathan Ellis, before whipping Khaleel for six.

From the other end, Varma tried unsettling Ashwin straightaway by thumping and reverse-sweeping him for back-to-back boundaries, before lofting off Ravindra Jadeja for six. Ashwin nearly had Suryakumar dismissed if he didn’t shell the caught-and-bowled chance, but the MI skipper was dismissed when he came out to take on Noor, but he missed the delivery that turned away and was quickly stumped by MS Dhoni for 29.

Noor struck again in the 13th over when IPL debutant Robin Minz tried to break free from pressure, but holed out to long-off. One brought two for Noor as he trapped Tilak plumb lbw with a googly for 31, before castling Naman Dhir around his legs for 17.

After Ellis trapped Mitchell Santner lbw, Chahar applied the finishing touches to MI’s innings by hitting Khaleel for four and six. Khaleel, though, finished off his spell by having Trent Boult hole out in the deep, before Chahar hoicked Ellis for six, as MI managed to cross 150-mark.

Brief scores:

Mumbai Indians 155/9 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 31, Suryakumar Yadav 29; Noor Ahmad 4-18, Khaleel Ahmed 3-29) against Chennai Super Kings

--IANS

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