Chennai Super Kings strolled to a five-wicket victory over hapless Kings XI Punjab at the MCA Stadium, Pune after recovering from early jolts. This was a must-win match for Kings XI Punjab who had to win by a huge margin against the Yellow army to enter the playoffs. Chasing a modest 154 to win, Chennai were in some early trouble as Rajpoot bowled brilliantly well. Raina and Chahar made sure that Chennai picked up the win comfortably.

Loss of Mumbai Indians earlier in the day gave a faint hope to Kings XI Punjab. The conditions were clear for Punjab, they had to win by 53 runs if batting first and win inside 13.4 overs if chasing. With Punjab choosing to bat first, they had to put up a mountain of runs to get through to the playoffs.

With KXIP needing a mammoth score in the first innings, all hoped were pinned upon one of the greatest hitters of the T20 world Chris Gayle and man in super form KL Rahul. Both the batsman faced failure in the biggest match for KXIP and they had to bear the consequences. Chris Gayle was back in first over itself for a duck when he walked back after edging an outside leg stump ball.

In the 13 matches before this one, KL Rahul had amassed 652 runs at an average of 59.27. He had scored six fifties in the season, one of which was fastest IPL fifty. His innings of 94* in 60 balls against Mumbai was a masterpiece that deserved a win but ended up on the losing side.

Tonight the conditions at MCA Stadium, Pune were helpful for the pace bowlers and it offered assistance to swing bowling. CSK bowlers made the most of it by bowling Test match lengths. The ball bowled by Lungi Ngidi to dismiss KL Rahul was peach as it knocked back the top of off stump. Punjab was already in disarray at 16/3 in four overs. They had lost Finch for 4 before KL Rahul. With Rahul’s wicket for 7(11), Punjab was never in competition.