Mumbai Indians became the first team to lose their first seven matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) season on Thursday.
The five-time champions achieved the dubious record after the Chennai Super Kings defeated the Rohit Sharma-led team by three wickets at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
MI surpassed the first joint record of Delhi Daredevils (Delhi Capitals) and Royal Challengers Bangalore who started off with six defeats each in 2013 and 2019 respectively.
This is also the 11th incident of losing seven matches in a row in the IPL but the team that previously won the IPL title for the first time faced notoriety.
Speaking of the match, CSK won the toss and elected to bowling first in this year’s tournament.
CSK’s Mukesh Choudhary has already bowled out the openers for zero in the first over. After that, MI fought hard with the help of 51 runs in 43 of Tilak Varma and managed to score a total of 155 runs.
MI also started with a CSK opener at zero, after which a solid partnership between Uthappa (30 for 25) and Rayudu (35 for 40) brought the team closer to the target.
Pretorius’ (14-22) quick cameo was very crucial in the end and classic finisher MS Dhoni (13-28 not out) ended the match with a four off the last ball.
After a disastrous start, Tilak Varma’s 51 not out helped MI reach 155 for 7, but in the end it was not enough as CSK chased down a target of 156 off the last ball.
MI skipper Rohit Sharma said: “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.”
Rohit said the pitch was good and his team could have scored more runs after being invited to bat. CSK captain Ravinder Jadeja praised Dhoni.
Jadeja said: “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 (Dhoni) showed the world that he’s still here and he can finish the game.”
He said about Ambati Rayudu and Dwayne 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.”
