Odds stacked against Royals
■ From jaws of defeat, du Plessis sends CSK into final
There were leg- side strangles, t golden ducks, a ‘ dead ball or no- ball’ situation and plenty of drama as Chennai Super Kings overcame a spirited Sunrisers Hyderabad challenge to win the Indian Premier League 2018 Qualifier 1 by two wickets, chasing 139, and sealed a place in the final for the seventh time here on Tuesday thanks to a special effort from South African Faf du Plessis.
After restricting SRH to a below- par 139, CSK’s hopes of sailing past SRH’s total dealt with a major blow as Bhuvneshwar Kumar ( 1/ 14) dismissed Shane Watson ( 0 runs off 5 balls) in the first over before Siddarth Kaul’s ( 2/ 32) twin strikes off consecutive deliveries sent Suresh Raina ( 22, 13b) and Ambati Rayudu — CSK’s leading run- getter — back in the fourth over.
Rashid Khan ( 2/ 11) then took out CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni with a wrong’un that crashed into the timberto leave them tottering at 39/ 4 in the eighth over. At that stage, CSK would have hoped for a Dwayne Bravo special. But the Afghan sensation cut short those plans as he removed the West Indian in 12th over after Shikhar Dhawan took an easy catch in the slips. Ravindra Jadeja was the next man to go, off Sandeep Sharma’s bowling in the 13th over.
Du Plessis ( 67 not out, 42b), who had opened the innings alongside Watson, started to swing his bat as he and Deepak Chahar added 30 runs off 15 balls before Carlos Brathwaite took a low catch to end Chahar’s stay in the middle on the final ball of the 15thover. SRH could have sealed the game on the but a review saved du Plessis and kept CSK alive. But Harbhajan Singh fell to Rashid’s brilliance in the outfield as he caught Bhajji short of his crease in the 18th over. That over also cost SRH 20 runs, with Faf hammering 19 off them, with three fours and a six.
CSK needed 23 runs off 12 balls and while all the eyes were on Faf. Shardul Thakur ( 15 not out, 6b), who had conceded 20 runs in his final over, made up by Kolkata, May 22: With odds stacked against them, former champions Rajasthan Royals will look to go full throttle when they lock horns with two- time winners and overwhelming favourites Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL Eliminator here on Wednesday.
Knight Riders have outplayed Rajasthan both in the home and away games this season. If it was a seven- wicket win at Jaipur last month, Kolkata notched up a comprehensive six- wicket win over their rivals a week ago at Edens gardens en route to sealing their play- off berth.
With three wins on the trot, Kolkata Knight Riders are on a roll as they clinched the last- four berth for a sixth time. From posting the highest total of the season to stunning tabletoppers Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last match, it has been a smacking three fours in the 19th overs and reducing the winning target to six runs off the last six balls. Faf then made sure there was no last- over drama as he hit the first ball of the 20th over for six. hand, have been heavily reliant on the alignment of their stars for their passage into the play- offs.
Minus their two top English star performers — Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes who were called for national duty — Rajasthan were written off by many, but they managed to upset Royal Challengers Bangalore in their final league game on May 19 to keep their slender hopes alive.
The win, however, was still not enough as they needed two results to go in their favour to qualify for the play- offs. Their prayers
w e r e answered exactly the way they wanted when the other contenders — Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab — were eliminated after losing their respective matches and Rajasthan advanced to the play- off in a dramatic way.
But in the Eliminator stage, which is a virtual quarterfinal, there’s no margin for error and the Ajinkya Rahane- led side have to rely on their resources.
First challenge for them will be to conquer the spin challenge of Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav, who haunted them with an IPL careerbest 4/ 20 in their six- wicket defeat here.
Going through a prolonged lean patch, skipper Rahane ( 324 runs at 27.00) will be the key to Rajasthan’s success. He will look to lead from the front and hope that the likes of Sanju Samson and in- form opener Rahul Tripathi come good on a pitch that promises to be full of runs and would also favour the team batting second.
KKR will have to stymie the South African clean- hitting wicketkeeper- batsman Heinrich Klaasen who will look to play the finishing role for RR.
Karthik has been terrific as the new captain for KKR, playing the finisher’s role for the team in most of the games with six unbeaten knocks.
Leading by example, Karthik has been their top rungetter with 438 runs at an average of 54.78 ( strike rate 149.48).
Belligerent as an opener and smart with his spin bowling, Trinidadian Sunil Narine, a two- time IPL winner with KKR, is once again proving to be their most valuable player.
With Chris Lynn restraining his strokemaking for a dodgy shoulder, Narine has complemented well with a strike rate of
189.01 to
give
them
a
fiery
start.
While the spinners have done their job, the pace department was found lacking but young Karnataka pacer Prasidh Krishna came up with his T20 best figures of 4/ 30 against Hyderabad in their last match and he would look to provide the stability to their pace attack. Three matches away from winning the title, KKR’s batting and bowling has combined seamlessly so far.