The 53rd match of IPL 2021 took place at the Dubai International stadium where the Chennai Super Kings faced the Punjab Kings. Punjab Kings have already been ruled out of the competition while the CSK has been a prominent force in this IPL.
Dhoni and his team are seen to be in a shaky position which is not a good sign for the three-times champion who were looking for their fourth IPL title.
Chasing a target of 135 runs, PBKS posted 139 for four in 13 overs with Rahul smashing the winning six. The wicketkeeper-batsman had a wonderful evening yesterday at Dubai. He will surely be cherishing this final win of the season for PBKS that came right at their last match for the season and against the dangerous CSK.
Now, let us have a look at data from yesterday’s encounter.
KL Rahul from PBKS won the toss and decided to field first.
A slow start by CSK
The in-form openers from CSK were seen to be starting the batting slowly and steadily. Gaikwad who has been scoring and striking for CSK this season was also knocked out by a bold delivery by Punjab’s pacer Arshdeep Singh.
A lack of build of the partnership was seen for CSK, where Faf was seen to be batting at his peak while wickets kept on falling at regular intervals.
No batters from CSK could score more than 15 runs which are pretty disappointing for the qualifiers. Also, it was Faf du Plessis with his powerful batting show, who scored 76 from 55 balls with a strike rate of 138.18. It was only him until the end of batting for CSK and finally got dismissed during the 20th over by Mohammed Shami.
The bowlers from Punjab did their job with the ball by restricting the dangerous Yellow army for just 134 runs at the end of 20 overs. The bowlers were seen to be bowling on tighter lines and executed their plans well.
Arshdeep Singh in his superb spell of four overs took two wickets at an economy of 8.75 while Chris Jordan with his tight bowling bowled for three overs and taking two wickets but with an incredible economy of 6.6.
The PBKS captain leading from the front
KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal started the chase for Punjab quite beautifully. Rahul was explosive yesterday, hitting the balls around since the beginning but unfortunately, Agarwal was sent off during the 5th over with a brilliant LBW by Shardul Thakur- the first bowler to strike for CSK.
PBKS were on 46/1 when Mayank left during the fifth over, while Sarfaraz Khan took his stunts after his dismissal. He too left the crease with a golden duck leaving Shardul Thakur to go for attempting a hattrick ball.
Thakur could not take his hattrick but bowled sensible three overs for CSK and taking three wickets at an economy of 9.3.
The batters from PBKS were just giving company to their skipper, while he was hitting all around and doing the job for the Punjab Kings.
KL Rahul’s super-innings consisted of eight sixes and seven fours and a super strike rate of 233.3. He remained unbeaten at 98 runs from just 42 balls. He achieved the target for his team at the end of just 13 overs losing four wickets and stylishly finishing off with a six to Shardul Thakur.