Chennai keep Punjab at bay to help Royals make playoffs
pune — Chennai Super Kings put up a superlative performance to beat Kings XI Punjab by five wickets and five balls to spare to finish their engagements on a high in the concluding league encounter of the Indian Premier League played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Sunday.
Chasing, Punjab’s modest total of 153 runs, Chennai survived some anxious moments before some lusty hitting by Suresh Raina (61 runs off 48 balls) and skipper MS Dhoni 7-ball 16 runs in the closing stages saw their team score 159 runs for the loss of five wickets.
Super Kings’ victory over Punjab paved the path for Rajasthan Royals (14 points) to become the fourth team to make the playoffs. Super Kings (18 points, run rate of 0.253) finished in the second spot in the table behind leaders Sunrisers Hyderabad (18 points, run rate 0.284) while Kolkata Knight Riders were third on 16 points.
Earlier, a quickfire lower order cameo by Karun Nair helped Kings XI Punjab post a modest 153 against Chennai Super Kings in the last league encounter of the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium here on Sunday.
Coming into bat when Punjab were in a spot of bother at 76/4 in the 12th over, Nair plundered 54 runs off 26 balls to breathe life into the innings. The right-hander produced an exciting display of power hitting, smashing three boundaries and five towering sixes.
The Chennai bowlers came out all guns blazing at their adopted home ground to bundle out the visitors for a modest total. Lungi Ngidi was the wrecker-in-chief for the yellow brigade with stunning figures of 4/10 from his four overs.
Put in to bat, the visitors were off to a disastrous start as Chennai pacers Ngidi and Deepak Chahar shattered Punjab’s top order.
While Ngidi sent back Punjab openers Lokesh Rahul (7) and Chris Gayle (0), Chahar dismissed the dangerous Aaron Finch (4) which left Punjab reeling at 16/3 after the first four overs.
Manoj Tiwary (35 off 30) and David Miller (24 off 22) then showed some resistance, putting on a 60-run stand for the fourth wicket. However, just when the partnership was settling down, Ravindra Jadeja sent back Tiwary, who was caught behind by Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the 12th over. All-rounder Dwayne Bravo too, joined the party as a perfect yorker from him dismantled Miller’s stump in the 13th over with Punjab’s score reading 80/5.
Karun Nair then showed terrific fight down the order, hitting some lusty blows. However, he lacked support from the other end as Punjab again lost three wickets of Axar Patel (14), Ravichandran Ashwin (0) and Andrew Tye (0) in quick succession. It was South African paceman Ngidi again who scalped the wickets of Ashwin and Tye while Shardul Thakur got the better of Patel.
Just when the visitors reached the 150-run mark, Bravo applied the brakes on a dangerous looking Nair’s innings. Nair’s knock was laced with three boundaries and five hits into the stands.
Thakur then performed the last rites as he dismissed tailender Ankit Rajpoot (2) to wrap up Ashwin’s men for 153. —