The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) is back with a bang as it was an exciting encounter between defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) which the latter won by 20 runs.

In absence of Rohit Sharma, West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard led the Mumbai-based franchise. Despite having CSK by the neck as the scoreboard read 24/4 after the first 6 overs, MI couldn’t capitalize on this start and ended up losing the game.

The former West Indies skipper Brian Lara was surprised with the way CSK turned the game upside down and revealed his thoughts about the match.

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“They [CSK] should have been done and dusted by the Mumbai Indians. There are a few things that Kieron Pollard did out there that I felt he didn’t really press gas at the right time and sort of just came off the pedal and allowed the Chennai Super Kings to get back into the match,” Lara told Cricket.com.

“But I felt that you make it easy, you can’t have Bumrah just bowling one over at that stage. I can’t blame the Mumbai bowlers, but I just felt that they could have done a little bit better tactically. I think it’s more tactical,” he added.

The left-hand batsman then went on to talk about MI’s dismal bowling performance as they gave away 69 runs in the final 5 overs and that helped MS Dhoni and Co. to 156 runs.

“You’ve got two spinners that you most likely will have to use at some point in time. I wouldn’t necessarily say the bowlers were bad. I felt if they had used them properly, no way 156 was on the card for Chennai Super Kings,” the legendary West Indies batsman concluded.

As far as CSK are concerned, with this win over MI, they take the top spot on the points table with 12 points to their name in 8 matches.

(With Cricket.com Inputs)