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. They batted in a disappointing fashion and somehow ended up at 153 runs in the first innings. Chennai bowling was led by Ngidi who picked up his best 4/10.

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.

The conditions at MCA Stadium, Pune tonight 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.

After this Manoj Tiwary and David Miller handled the situation and made sure that KXIP managed a respectable score. The pair added 60 runs before they were separated in an over between each other. Karun Nair, who was dropped in the last match, made a statement and played a blinder knock. Nair scored 54 runs from 26 balls with three boundaries and five sixes.

The tail was wiped up by Lungi Ngidi who ended up with phenomenal bowling figures of 4/10. Shardul Thakur and Dwayne Bravo both picked up two wickets and supported Ngidi. CSK needs 154 runs to win.