IPL 2024: Punjab dawdle through final stages of comfortable chase after CSK show a lack of firepower

Over the Ropes 🙌 💥

Shashank Singh taking #PBKS closer 👌

Watch the match LIVE on @StarSportsIndia and @JioCinema 💻📱#TATAIPL | #CSKvPBKS | @PunjabKingsIPL pic.twitter.com/ZPKu4CNzwd

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 1, 2024

Dhoni’s pad-work

In the last two overs of the Chennai Super Kings defence, MS Dhoni was more like a hockey goalkeeper. Both Mustafizur Rahman and Richard Gleeson were spitting cutters and slower balls that reached Dhoni on one bounce, sometimes even twice. The bounce on the outfield seemed a bit uneven as well, which made judging the ball difficult. So he blocked the balls with his pads, often upright, sometimes if he was unsure of the bounce, he crouched. Much to his chagrin, though, both erred with their lengths. The usually precise Rahman bowled four wides in his last over, spoiling an otherwise standout exhibition of guiles. Gleeson’s attempted slower ball slipped out of his palms, flew above the waist and dipped viciously onto Dhoni, whose pads though were well-positioned to block the ball from dribbling to the fence. His footwork was dexterous, and often he showed the full pads at the ball.

MS plays to the gallery

When does hero worship turn into disrespect for lesser mortals? When does turning down runs, that too in the final over with a specialist batsman and bonafide six-hitter at the other end, become an issue for the team’s fans? Not in Chennai on Wednesday. It’s no secret that the home crowd’s chief motivation for coming through the turnstiles at Chepauk was having an audience with their beloved Thala. MS Dhoni came out with a little more than two overs left, and managed to score 14 off 11 balls before getting run out off the final ball of the innings, the first time he has been dismissed this season. He hit a four and a six but didn’t manage to do much else. But what wasn’t a good look was Dhoni hitting a ball to long-off and Daryl Mitchell running two runs by himself without any addition to the score as Dhoni didn’t budge from his position. The Kiwi is known to find the stands himself. Maybe, Dhoni thought Arshdeep Singh’s left-arm angle would be difficult for Mitchell. Or he just remembered the first rule of mass media: Give the public what they want!

The long wait

As many as 871 sixes were struck in 48 games this season (that is 18 sixes a game), where batsmen have ravenously sought to clear the fence, and made little fuss about it. Yet, a match comes reversing the trend, as this one. For 16.1 overs on a relatively sluggish surface, CSK’s batsmen fretted, fumed and fidgeted to thud the ball beyond the ropes. Finally, a waist-high no-ball, upon review, granted the opportunity for Ruturaj Gaikwad to have a risk-less go of the ensuing free-hit. And so he did, clumping the ball into the stands. One six brought more, like state-run buses (of most states), and Gaikwad wrapped up the over with another maximum. Two balls later, Jonny Bairstow helped his England colleague Moeen Ali with another six, when the ball leapt out of his hands past the ropes.

Wide ball of the season

This season has been restorative for Harshal Patel. The key was he began to use his slower blower judiciously and at the same time rediscovered his mastery of length, the polestar of his success in the past editions. But his first ball against Chennai Super Kings was a throwback to his scattergun days. He simply missed the direction and the moment it left his palms, everyone knew its destination, the fence-cushion, to the left of the fine-leg fielder. It started on leg-stump, then swung away further, and the further, missing Ruturaj Gaikwad’s wishful leg-glance, slid past the wide-line and the lunging wicket-keeper and sped to the fence for five wides. So wide a delivery that even if Gaikwad were left-handed it would have been adjudged a wide. Harshal smiled sheepishly. His captain Sam Curran threw a stink eye.