Chennai Super Kings 167 for 9 (Jadeja 43, Chahar 3-23, Harshal 3-24) beat Punjab Kings 139 for 9 (Prabhsimran 30, Jadeja 3-20, Deshpande 2-35) by 28 runs
Punjab Kings showcased their very best and worst selves all in the course of about 45 minutes and in the end the bad outweighed the good as they lost to Chennai Super Kings by 28 runs.
Sam Curran’s men had dominated proceedings right from the toss. A target of 168 should’ve been well within their reach, especially when they strung together a period of play where they hit six boundaries in 18 balls between the fifth and the seventh overs.
The equation at that point was 112 off 78 with eight wickets in hand. This was not the time to collapse but collapse they did, losing both their set batters, their captain and their finisher. They tumbled from 62 for 2 to 78 for 7. And CSK rose from fifth place to third place.
CSK stutter
It all began with CSK ticking every box they shouldn’t tick in a batting innings in T20 cricket. They lost a wicket in the powerplay. Ajinkya Rahane’s poor IPL continued with his fifth score of 15 or less. Then just as they were recovering – backing up overs that went for 19 and 9 runs – they lost three wickets in 11 balls, including their top-scorer Ruturaj Gaikwad (32 off 21) and their spin-hitter Shivam Dube (0 off 1). Then just as they were recovering from that – backing up overs that went for 11 and 9 runs – they lost another wicket. Ravindra Jadeja, batting at No. 6, was in during the ninth over and made sure to stay there almost through to finish. His 43 off 26 balls was crucial to the total CSK ended up with.
Chahar’s masterclass
Rahul Chahar was once again at the forefront of the PBKS bowling performance, even though he was facing a line-up full of left-handers. He coped by trusting his googly and by staying out of their hitting arcs. These are defensive skills and they are proving more and more valuable. Fifteen of the legspinner’s 24 deliveries arrived outside the batter’s off stump, or even wider, and fetched him all three of his wickets.
Harshal back to his old self
181 runs. That’s how many Harshal Patel gave up in his first four games of this season. 181 runs. That’s also how many Harshal has given up over his last seven games this season. He’s also picked up 13 wickets along the way. He’s become a bowler transformed – or so it seems. Really though, a death overs specialist runs the risk of splits like these. It’s the difference between executing what you want perfectly and missing your mark by a few inches. Harshal secured two of his three wickets with slow, sharply dipping yorkers. One of them was MS Dhoni for a first-ball duck. He spoke about how he doesn’t rely on technique as much as feel, which is why he wasn’t at his best at the start of the season; he was rusty. But with overs under his belt, he has gotten better and better.
A strange pitch
This pitch, on first sight, seemed to be pretty good for batting. But eventually it became clear that it was playing some tricks. Harshal mentioned that since it was a day game and the square was so dry he was getting reverse swing from as early when he came on to bowl, in the 10th over. Later, in the evening, the new ball started to deck around. It offered extra bounce, which interfered with the shots that Gaikwad and Dube tried to play, but also kept low, without which Daryl Mitchell might not have been lbw. When the ball got old, it held in the pitch and took turn. Both Chahar and Jadeja produced double-wicket overs.
CSK’s bowling leader
CSK have lost Deepak Chahar and Matheesha Pathirana to injury but have been able to stay in the race for the IPL playoffs because Tushar Deshpande has improved beyond sight. He was the one selecting the ball that they were going to use at the start of the game. That is typically the responsibility of a very senior player. This guy was once their net bowler. His rise has been phenomenal. Deshpande took out PBKS’ two big guns in the top-order – Jonny Bairstow and Rilee Rossouw – in the same over. His first six balls of the match increased CSK’s chances of victory by 18.66%.
The recovery
The thing with defending small totals is everybody has to be perfect. CSK had one bowler who was nailing his lengths. Constantly looking to hit the deck, which is where all the vagaries were coming from, whether it was extra bounce, or the ball holding up, or keeping low. Deshpande’s upright seam position also helped him get sideways movement. The Rossow ball nipped in against the angle and left his stumps splayed before he could even react. Beaten for both pace and movement.
But overs five, six and seven cost CSK as Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh went on the offensive. They were pulling off jaw-dropping shots. A ramp over third man for six when there was no room and the ball was climbing. An inside-out drive over cover for four when the ball was darted in on or even outside leg stump.
The collapse
Mitchell Santner has a history of putting in high-impact performances. In his second game for CSK, he hit the last ball for six to win the game. But being a left-arm spinner in a team that already has Jadeja, he tends to ride the bench. This was his 16th game for CSK in five years. He only came in because Mustafizur Rahman had to leave early and Pathirana and Chahar were injured. Still, he is a player who knows his strengths and he backed them, bowling nice and tight on the stumps and asking the batters to hit him to the longer boundary, down the ground. That’s how he got Shashank.
In the next, the ninth over, Jadeja took out Prabhsimran. In the next over, Simarjeet Singh got rid of Jitesh Sharma and so on and so on. Five wickets. Sixteen runs. Twenty-eight balls. PBKS kept trying to hit themselves out of trouble. They were unable to soak the pressure; unable to bat at a different gear.
This is the kind of situation that CSK thrive in. So even when there came a point where Ashutosh Sharma was dropped very poorly by Moeen Ali, they had Jadeja up their sleeve and he produced a wicket off the very next ball, Sam Curran falling to another big shot, and then in the same over, Ashutosh too succumbing to a wild swing. That was 78 for 7 and that was the game.
