The Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) hosted Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 55th game of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the PCA’s Is Bindra Stadium. After winning the toss, the home skipper, Ravichandran Ashwin asked the visitors to bat and his decision turned out well as registered a solitary win before leaving the tournament.
During the toss, the CSK skipper, MS Dhoni revealed that they have made no changes to their squad. On the other hand, KXIp had made just one change to their squad as Harpreet Brar came back in to replace Arshdeep Singh.
WATCH – Curran Takes The Best Possible Revenge With Du Plessis
After the early dismissal of Watson, the onus was on the veterans like Faf du Plessis and Suresh Raina and they delivered when it mattered the most by adding as many as 120 runs for the second wicket. Meanwhile, both of them scored the fifties. But Raina was dismissed by Sam Curran in the 17th over. Before the dismissal, Faf had smashed the bowler for a six over the bowler’s head.
Loss of wickets
After his dismissal, Dhoni came out to bat when Du Plessis was looking all set to make is the first century of the season, but again Curran barred him from doing that by dismissing the batsman with a brilliant yorker in the 19th over. After his dismissal, even Mohammed Shami dismissed, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav in the final over and eventually reached the score of 170/5 in their quota of 20 overs.
Rahul’s knock
During the chase, the Punjab openers KL Rahul and Chris Gayle came out all guns blazing as they amassed as many as 68 runs in the powerplay itself, Rahul was the major contributor though as he scored 55 of that. He scored the third fastest fifty of the season. They went on to score as many as 108 runs for opening wicket before Harbhajan Singh dismissing both on back-to-back deliveries in the 11th over.
WATCH – Chahar Caught Gayle Leg Before Wicket
Harbhajan also got the wicket of Mayank Agarwal in his next over, but with the help of some late fireworks from Nicholas Pooran, KXIP managed to chase down the total with six wickets in hand 12 balls to spare.
Brief Score:
Kings XI Punjab – 173/4 (KL Rahul 71, N Pooran 36; H Singh 3/57) defeated Chennai Super Kings – 170/5 (Faf du Plessis 96, S Raina 53; S Curran 3/35) by six wickets
