Big teams do their best work on big stages, and the Mumbai Indians have once again shown why they are the team to fear this season. After a slow start in which Mumbai lost several games in a row, Rohit Sharma’s team turned things around. They played with less fear, which brought them one step closer to playing Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2023 final.
Matthew Hayden, the former opening batsman for CSK, said that based on MI’s recent comeback and the way they have been dominating their opponents, Chennai would be afraid to play them in the finals on Sunday. MI beat the Lucknow Super Giants by a huge 81 runs.
In the first part of the season, it was hard for the Mumbai Indians to get going. They lost four of their first seven games. MI won five of the six remaining games in the second half of the event and made it into the playoffs. In the Eliminator on Wednesday, Mumbai played LSG, a team they had never beaten before. They beat them by 81 runs and moved one step closer to making the finals.
“A very special accomplishment. The two halves of the season were very different in how MI played. In their first seven games, they only won three and lost four. They won five of the next seven games. They are doing really well right now. I think teams that aren’t MI will be afraid of them now,” Hayden told Star Sports, as reported by India Today.
MI’s form and the past of the final will haunt CSK. —Hayden
The teams that have won the most IPL titles are Chennai and Mumbai, which have won four and five titles, respectively. In the four previous finals between these two teams, Mumbai has come in first three times. If they beat the Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2, they will be a strong contender for the title this time.
Earlier, CSK’s legendary bowling coach Dwayne Bravo made the same jokes about how CSK was afraid of meeting Mumbai in the finals.
“If they haven’t already, and the Mumbai Indians are not only in a position in the next game where they can qualify (for the final), that’s going to give CSK the chills. DJ Bravo, one of their best artists, told us that already. But I don’t think Gujarat Titans would have chosen Mumbai Indians if they had wanted to play,” Hayden added.
In the second qualifier of the IPL 2023, Mumbai will go to Ahmedabad to play the Gujarat Titans.
