Chennai Super Kings show Punjab the door
Suresh Raina played a sensible unbeaten knock of 61 runs of 47 balls to help Chennai Super Kings (CSK) sail pass Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by five wickets in a final league match of an Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Sunday.
Raina struck four fours and two sixes as CSK chased down 154-run target with five balls to spare. CSK scored 159 with MS Dhoni hit winning six and remain not out on 16.
Punjab failed to secure a place in the play-offs as they needed to win by the margin of 53 or more runs. However, Rajasthan Royals became the fourth and final team to enter the play-offs after Sunrisers Hyderabad, CSK and Kolkata Night Riders.
Earlier, Young paceman Lungi Ngidi took four wickets for just 10 runs but Karun Nair hit a timely half-century to help KXIP recover from a top-order collapse and post 153. Delhi Daredevils had done a favour to Punjab by knocking out Mumbai Indians with an 11-run win in the first match of the day as it kept Punjab in the hunt.
When Punjab batsmen needed to fire in unison, only Nair showed stomach for fight with his 26-ball knock, which was laced with three fours and five sixes. It was South African paceman Ngidi (4-10) who triggered a toporder collapse as he swung the ball both ways to confound the Punjab batsmen.
He first had dangerous Chris Gayle (0) caught behind and then bowled other opener KL Rahul with a peach of delivery that swung in and sent the stump kartwheeling.
Deepak Chahar had Aaron Finch (4) caught by Raina as Punjab managed only 29 runs in the Powerplay overs. In his sensational three-over spell, Ngidi conceded just seven runs and scalped both the openers.
David Miller (24) and Manish Tiwary (35) repaired the innings with a 60-run partnership before left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja broke the stand by dismissing the latter.
Miller too did not last long after departure of Tiwary as he was undone by a well-executed yorker by West Indian Dwayne Bravo. The Miller wicket meant that Punjab were reeling at 80 for five in 12.1 overs.
A small partnership developed between Axar Patel (14) and Nair but Sam Billings pulled off a stunning diving catch to get rid of the lefthander. Still, Punjab got 18 runs from that Shardul Thakur over with Nair finding a six and two fours.
Ngidi returned to the attack and saw the back of rival captain R Ashwin, who could not even open his account, nicking the ball to his counterpart MS Dhoni behind the wickets.