As it happened: Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians, IPL 2022, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

It's official now. CSK are out of contention for a playoffs spot.

Tim David hastens Mumbai's march to victory, finishing it with a pair of mighty sixes off Moeen Ali in the 15th over. Mumbai win with 31 balls remaining, with Tilak Varma finishing unbeaten on a pleasing 34 off 32 balls.

A fast bowlers' match, to sum up, on a fast bowlers' pitch. CSK were never really going to recover after losing their first five wickets within the powerplay on a pitch like this, and even though they did well to hit back with the ball courtesy Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh, Mumbai had the advantage of chasing, and chasing a small total at that.

"I asked the bowlers to show a lot of character, put the opposition under pressure and forget about the result," MS Dhoni says of the efforts of his new-ball pair. "I feel both the young fast bowlers bowled really well. As far as their contribution is concerned, I feel a game like this really helps them. It's something that they start believing in themselves."

A good positive to take out of a defeat like this, for sure, and an encouraging sign for next season. As for Mumbai, they get the two points from this game, and the encouragement from their fast bowlers' displays on this pitch - this will most likely be Mumbai's home pitch assuming (a massive assumption, for sure) Covid retreats further next season and the IPL goes back to being a multiple-venues tournament. And this sort of pitch plus this attack plus Jofra Archer... that would be most tasty indeed.

And it's the classic offspinner's dismissal. Moeen Ali loops one up outside off stump, and gets a bit of dip. Shokeen steps out, doesn't get to the pitch of the ball, and ends up aiming an ugly-looking hoick at the ball. The ball turns past the inside edge and hits leg stump, and Mumbai are 81 for 5 in 12.4.

They need 17 off 44, which should be straightforward, but is there another twist left in this game?

At the end of the 12th over, Mumbai need just 18 to win. Tilak Varma and Hrithik Shokeen have added 47 off 43 balls, and the former has done the bulk of the scoring, with three fours in Maheesh Theekshana's last two overs.

One of them was a reverse-sweep nailed out of the middle, but there was also an edge, and a misfield on the off-side boundary from Robin Uthappa. They all count, though, as Mumbai rumble along towards what seems a certain victory.

The IPL is usually played in the Indian summer months with the sun beating down on the squares in most part of the country throughout the season. The heat sucks any life out of the pitches and they dry up. Plus, there is wear and tear from the use as well. So it is not unusual for the spinners to begin playing a bigger role towards the latter half the season. Fast bowlers usually take the back seat as the season goes along.

In a refreshing contrast, the current season - just one short of 60 matches – has seen pitches with decent bounce throughout most part of the season. This match is being played on the center pitch at the Wankhede stadium, and it is being used for just the second time this season after the inaugural match between CSK and KKR. Nevertheless, this Wankhede pitch is particularly lively, what with the bounce and movement on offer for fast bowlers.

Fast bowlers have taken 11 wickets at an average of 10.4 in the match so far (at the 9-over mark in Mumbai's innings), and have struck once in every 10.9 balls. The closest pacers have come to this average (while taking any number of wickets) 50 or more games into a season was in a match in Pune between Rising Pune Supergiant and Kings XI Punjab. On that occasion, however, the pitch was on the slower if anything and the Punjab batters – according to their captain Virender Sehwag - failed to adjust to the pace on the wicket. In that match pacers took seven wickets at an average of 11.6.

Such bounce and movement this late into an IPL season is rare. To put it in numbers, the median runs per wicket conceded by pacers in IPL matches played in India from the 50th match in any season is 26.7. On an average pacers take seven wickets per match, striking once every 20.7 balls. In fact at present, pacers' average of 10.4 in this match is the fourth-best in any IPL game played in India.

A couple of numbers from Sampath Bandarupalli that support that point:

What a bowler Choudhary is turning out to be. Mumbai suffered at his hands during the previous meeting between these sides, and he's now cutting a swathe through their top order.

Another classic left-armer's dismissal, the ball slanted across from left-arm over and straightening wickedly late. Perfect length too, and Tristan Stubbs is out for a second-ball duck on IPL debut, stuck on the crease, jamming his bat down in a hurry but not quickly enough, and smacked on the back pad. Choudhary has figures of 3-17 after 2.5 overs.

Perfect left-armer's delivery to a left-arm swing bowler who bats right-handed. Daniel Sams has been sent in at No. 3, possibly as a pinch-hitter or as a more dispensable batter sent in to use up a few balls when the ball is still new and swinging.

But a relatively new and still lavishly swinging ball gets him out. Choudhary slants a full one across the stumps, gets it to swing back in, and Sams, looking to flick, plays around his front pad and misses. It looks plumb and it was plumb, and Sams burns a review too.

Mumbai are 30 for 2 after 3.3 overs, as Rohit feels for an outswinger in the corridor and nicks off to Dhoni. There was another similar ball that beat his edge a couple of balls ago, and in the previous over Choudhary had also swung one into him and produced a big lbw appeal.

Just like in CSK's innings, the new ball is moving around quite a lot even when it isn't that new, in T20 terms.

But in searching for that movement, particularly swing through the air, CSK have also overpitched on a few occasions, and Rohit hit three fours in these last two overs, all via drives down the ground. It's a difficult balance to maintain for the bowlers, especially with such a low total to defend.

An eventful first over from the left-armer. MS Dhoni gave him two slips and a gully for Ishan Kishan, and CSK pretty much had to, given how low a total they were defending. There was a completely speculative review for an lbw that totally wasn't on, and a boundary driven through one of the many gaps opened up by having three catchers in the cordon, but then, fifth ball of the over, Kishan looked for an on-the-up cover drive with an angled bat and nicked it through to Dhoni.

Mumbai are 6 for 1.

A fierce bouncer from Meredith in a bid to keep Dhoni on strike from the final ball of his over, and exceptionally sharp work from Ishan Kishan behind the stumps, who is alert to the likelihood of a scampered single come what may, and despite still wearing his gauntlet, his shy at the stumps is pinpoint. It is CSK's second-lowest total in IPL history - their worst effort, 79, was on this same ground against Mumbai in 2013.

A fierce bouncer from Ramandeep, and a flat-footed follow-up is swallowed up at short cover. That was a fittingly meek display from Theekshana, and CSK's innings is all but cooked now. Can Dhoni give them anything to work with in the final six overs?

Gaurav has the killer stat. "CSK have never been dismissed for less than 100 while batting first. Among the original eight teams, they are the only ones to have not got a sub-100 score in the IPL."

Maybe, just maybe, the beginnings of a fightback from CSK's old stagers? Nope... spoke too soon! DJ Bravo has been a bit of a cat on a hot tin roof in the opening exchanges of his innings, but a shimmy to the pitch off Kartikeya results in a massive six over long-on to take his innings into double-figures. One ball later, however, he's gone for 12 from 15... a stride to the pitch and a lashed drive over cover, or not as it turns out, as Varma grabs brilliantly to break a seventh-wicket stand of 39, one that has exactly doubled CSK's total.

And three balls later, it's back to freefall for CSK, as Simarjeet presses forward to Kartikeya and is sent on his way despite a futile review (at least it was available this time). It's 80 for 8, and it's getting pretty ugly.

Dhoni, meanwhile, is lurking on 24 not out, with one biff over square leg for six to remind us all of his latent powers.

A third catch for Kishan, a second wicket for Meredith. A continuation of a dismal meltdown for CSK. This time it's Dube, attempting a ramp shot as Meredith bangs it in short. But his connection is too thin and the keeper barely needs to stretch to swallow the chance. It's Dhoni and Bravo in harness for CSK, and the clock has been reset to roughly 2013. Too bad the score most certainly hasn't.

Another one, you say? Well, why not, it's been that sort of a day for CSK. It's Riley Meredith's turn for a fourth-ball wicket - a nipbacker to Ambati Rayudu, cutting him in half and snicking off the inside-edge through to Kishan once more. They've slumped to an abject 29 for 5, which has become 32 for 5 by the end of the Powerplay - the full sorry breakdown is there for all to see.

And to think that Bumrah took just nine balls to claim five wickets in his latter spells against KKR...

Power failure you say? Make it a Powerplay failure! CSK are four-down in 4.1 overs, and this one is the limpest dismissal of the lot. A leg-side long-hop from Daniel Sams, a faint tickle on an attempted leg glance, and an apologetic appeal from Kishan to send Ruturaj Gaikwad on his way for 7. He pumped Bumrah for four through the covers in the previous over, which isn't something many batters have been able to say this week. But that was as good as it got.

Here comes MS Dhoni, with licence to take this innings as deep as he pleases...

And for those of you thinking you've seen this one before... you're right, you have. In fact, it's been a recurring theme for CSK at the Wankhede. They invariably struggle against the swing, losing four wickets on two occasions and only once in ten games have they made it through the Powerplay without losing a wicket.

Jasprit Bumrah saunters into the contest with the small matter of 5 for 10 from his previous outing against KKR. He needs just four runless balls to make it six in the blink of an eye, and it's another non-reviewable lbw that makes the latest breakthrough. There was less contention about this one... full, fast, wobbly, straight, into the knee-roll as Robin Uthappa brings his bat down late and across the line. He was unable to get close to Bumrah's first three balls either, on a wider line outside off. Now you see it, now you don't.

DRS is back now, by the way. Nothing to see here...

Oh my, you couldn't script this... a first-over pad-slammer from Daniel Sams, and Devon Conway is pinned lbw in front of leg stump for a first-ball duck. He'd review it if he could, but there's no DRS at present due to a power outage, and there's no mercy from umpire Ravikanthreddy either! A trigger-fingered dismissal... and Conway is non-plussed. That would have been tight to the outer edge of leg stump, to say the least!

In comes Moeen Ali at No.3... out goes Moeen Ali for 0 (2)! Cramped for room on the bouncer, an uncomfortable claw into the leg-side, and a comfortable catch at short midwicket! Well now, this is escalating quickly!

"Just the nature of the ground, and what suits the team as well, even though whatever we have done this season has not worked," Rohit Sharma says, of the decision to bowl first. Mumbai have left out Kieron Pollard to bring in Stubbs. Hrithik Shokeen, meanwhile, replaces M Ashwin. I would guess the offspinner comes in considering all the left-handers in the CSK line-up.

"We do understand his contribution to this franchise, but he was ready to accept it," Rohit says of Pollard. "We want to try out a few players since we have only three games left."

Pollard, incidentally, has been left out on his 35th birthday. Must have been quite a difficult decision.

CSK are unchanged. "It's tough to replace [Jadeja], but you have to make the most of who is available," MS Dhoni says, having mentioned how valuable Jadeja is for the flexibility he offers as far as team combination goes, and his fielding.

Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Tristan Stubbs, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Ramandeep Singh, 6 Tim David, 7 Hrithik Shokeen, 8 Daniel Sams, 9 Kumar Kartikeya, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Riley Meredith.

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Ambati Rayudu, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Dwayne Bravo, 9 Simarjeet Singh, 10 Maheesh Theekshana, 11 Mukesh Choudhary.