Nita Ambani appeared to be in a good mood even after her team, Mumbai Indians, suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of rivals, Chennai Super Kings in the IPL on Saturday. The defeat pushed Mumbai Indians to sixth in the points table, but this did not stop India’s richest woman and her son Akash Ambani from sharing laughter with Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni after the match. Also posing for the camera with a smile was Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar, who’s been sidelined by Mumbai Indians after he conceded 31 runs in one over in one of the matches recently.
Batting first, Mumbai Indians made 139-8 with skipper Rohit Sharma once again failing to shine with the bat. He was out for a duck.
Chennai Super Kings achieved the target by losing just four wickets and 2.2 overs to spare. With today’s win, the side from Chennai have now cemented their second position in the points table. The top four teams will qualify for the play-off stage after each side has faced every team twice in a home and away format.
Reacting to his side’s yet another defeat, Sharma acknowledged the poor batting performance by his team. He said that Mumbai Indians batter ‘didn’t bat well enough’ and ‘didn’t put enough runs for the bowlers to defend.’
“We had an off-day as a batting unit. We needed an Indian batter to bat in the middle overs against spin after unfortunately losing Tilak Varma, but we lost three wickets for just 16 runs. Piyush Chawla is bowling really well and the other bowlers need to rally around him, everyone has to come forward and chip in contributions,” Sharma added.
A visibly jubilant Dhoni, for his part, said that today’s match against the five-time IPL champions was ‘very crucial’ for him.
“Last few games the results have not gone in our favour and so it is good to be back on the winning side. I was doubtful about the decision at the toss. I wanted to bat first but the think tank thought about the rain, and I was slightly outnumbered, so we went with the majority. If there is some kind of confusion then we sit and talk about it. Bowlers who don’t have a very clean action are difficult to pick, it is not the pace or variations, but the consistency. I would prefer Pathirana not to play red-ball cricket and play all the ICC tournaments, he would be a great asset for Sri Lanka,” the legendary former India skipper said.
Soon after the match, both Nita Ambani and Akash Ambani were seen busy in intense conversation with Dhoni as they exchanged smiles. The photo also triggered hilarious speculations as some fans felt that Nita was trying to convince Dhoni to replace Sharma as the captain of Mumbai Indians next year.
Nita Ambani to Rohit Sharma after his 2nd duck in row :#CSKvMI pic.twitter.com/k9GfBcAW2z
— Ankit (@revengeseeker77) May 6, 2023
Nita Ambani and ambani asking MS Dhoni to play for Mumbai Indians next year in place of vadapav
#CSKvsMI #MIvsCSK #MSDhoni #RohithSharma #ViratKohli #CSKvMI pic.twitter.com/hNNYIPbFrK— Ak (@IAM_DALE05) May 6, 2023
Nita Ambani to Rohit Sharma 😛 #ACKOForTheFans pic.twitter.com/GhEjlNHgCb
— Adi (@Notsofamousboy) May 6, 2023
Nita ambani to rohit sharma:#ACKOForTheFans #BoliBachchan pic.twitter.com/5ah6ZuGBNU
— JM149 (@Jm1492004) May 6, 2023
Elsewhere, Arjun Tendulkar too appeared happy after his side’s loss as he posed for the camera along with some players from the CSK. Tendulkar junior has fallen out of favour after he became the second-most expensive bowler in the IPL history as he conceded 31 runs in a single over.
