Chennai Super Kings (CSK) got the better of Mumbai Indians (MI) in the opening match of the second phase of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) as the former registered a 20-run win over the defending champions.

With no Rohit Sharma in the side, Kieron Pollard was captain and while talking in the post-match interaction with the host broadcasters, the all-rounder felt giving away 69 runs in the final 5 overs is where the Mumbai-based franchise gave away the game.

“Gave too many with the ball at the end. We must have got a partnership. You can do a lot of things differently in hindsight. Losing by 20 runs, I think that is the difference. Their batters tried to continue the momentum throughout, we didn’t do that,” Pollard told the broadcasters.

IPL 2021: “Ruturaj and Bravo got us more than what we expected” - MS Dhoni after CSK's win over MI

Even though MI had CSK by the neck by reducing the Chennai-based franchise for 24/4 with Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu (retired hurt) back in the hut, opening batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad played a brilliant knock of unbeaten 88 (58) to take his team to 156 in their quota of 20 overs.

With MI getting off to a similar start as even the five-time champions lost a few early wickets, Pollard pointed out that his side needed one batsman to stay till the end like Gaikwad did.

“We could have learnt from their mistake of losing too many wickets in the powerplay. We needed one guy to bat deep. We had a couple of soft dismissals. We can’t let that happen at this level, but we still have six games to go,” the 34-year-old concluded.

With this win under their belt, MS Dhoni and Co. have taken the top spot on the points table with 12 points to their name.

(With Cricketnext Inputs)