Punjab Kings 163 for 3 (Bairstow 46, Rossouw 43) beat Chennai Tremendous Kings 162 for 7 (Gaikwad 62, Rahane 29, Chahar 2-16, Brar 2-17) by seven wickets
Chennai Tremendous Kings have been left reeling on the Chepauk Stadium as Punjab Kings made it back-to-back wins with a snug seven-wicket victory to retain a slim, outdoors likelihood at making the playoffs. They’ve additionally grow to be the second group to beat CSK 5 occasions in a row, an honour they now share with Mumbai Indians.
CSK squeezed by spin at dwelling
To say CSK have been caught halfway by means of their innings could be an understatement. After Ajinkya Rahane completed the powerplay with three successive fours off Sam Curran, the hosts went with out a boundary off the bat for all of 55 deliveries – the longest stretch this season, beating Gujarat Titan’s 38 in opposition to Delhi Capitals.
Full credit score ought to go to the twin spin menace of Brar and Rahul. The left-arm spinner and legspinner, respectively, mixed for seven overs on the trot from the sixth to deliver the hosts to a standstill. They prised out three wickets to destroy any momentum CSK had after their highest opening stand of the marketing campaign (64). Two of them – Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja – have been left-hand batters, as CSK tried to frontload their batting card with left-hand batters to counter the route of flip of each spinners. Match-ups be damned, it merely didn’t work.
Brar bowled his 4 overs – 2 for 17 – on the bounce; wicket-to-wicket, giving the odd one the possibility to show, however largely giving batters nothing to work with. Simply because it regarded like he could be the primary man of the double act, Rahul returned within the nineteenth and went for simply three (extra on that later), taking out the leg stump of Moeen Ali – one other legbreak – alongside the best way to complete with 2 for 16 himself.
Dhoni lastly dismissed…However PBKS had him pegged
Bowling spinners on the dying could be dangerous enterprise. Groups are more and more doing it, however not typically as late because the nineteenth over, or with a wristspinner with the relative lack of expertise of Rahul in comparison with the likes of Rashid Khan or Yuzvendra Chahal.
However Dhoni has not been probably the most fluent of batters in opposition to spin for a while now, and CSK ensure that he comes late sufficient to not need to take care of the turning ball. Out of the 37 balls he had confronted this season earlier than Wednesday, solely three have been from spinners.
It was a share transfer by PBKS to bowl Rahul within the penultimate over of the innings with Dhoni on strike. Chahar did his job by conserving the ball away from Dhoni’s hitting arc, in direction of the leg facet. Three out of 4 balls have been despatched down outdoors the off stump. The one time Chahar fired one down the leg was when Dhoni tried to create one thing by transferring in direction of off, and that one missed leg stump by a whisker.
Residence comforts for Gaikwad
Who is aware of how badly issues would have gone for CSK have been it not for his or her captain. Gaikwad’s fifth 50-plus rating of the season was the one rating of observe and readability. It additionally continued his exceptional scoring streak at Chepauk, which now sees him boast 396 runs at this venue, main the best way for a CSK batter at dwelling in an IPL season. The earlier finest was Devon Conway’s 390 in 2023, and Gaikwad has yet one more knock at dwelling within the common season so as to add some gloss to that accolade.
The primary 30 of his 62 got here within the opening stand with Rahane, however its demise elicited a mini-collapse to 70 for 3. Gaikwad’s final 17 runs got here off simply 9 deliveries, which included citing a 44-ball half-century with the primary six of the innings, carefully adopted by a second.
With the bowling shares wanting a bit of mild with Matheesha Pathirana and Tushar Deshpande lacking by means of damage and sickness, and Mustafizur Rahman now returning to Bangladesh, Gaikward and the CSK administration have a lot to contemplate. Fortunately, the captain’s type is just not an issue, although he’d nearly definitely quit his newly-acquired orange cap if it meant successful a toss.
Affect dud
A scuffed boundary past the gloves of Jitesh Sharma was met with a glance of aid by Sameer Rizvi. Not solely was it his first boundary – off his twenty second supply – nevertheless it ended the drought off the bat. A brand new, undesirable report.
Now 21 off 22, Rizvi, who was substituted in to interchange Rahane, determined to puff his chest out. Kagiso Rabada’s further tempo, he thought, would enable him to information extra intentionally behind sq.. Throughout he stepped, bat face provided totally to ramp the ball into the past. Contact with the ball was crisp, most likely the cleanest he had managed on the evening. Sadly, Harshal Patel’s hustle from deep third was rewarded with a catch. The influence substitute has come below scrutiny, posited as an element for the leap in scoring this season. Right here was an instance of the way it can go incorrect.
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an affiliate editor at ESPNcricinfo
