Punjab Kings registered their fourth victory in the ongoing IPL season.
Invited to bat first, PBKS rode on opener Shikhar Dhawan’s 59-ball 88* to post 187/4 on the board. Bhanuka Rajapaksa also made a significant contribution of 32-ball 42 while Liam Livingstone chipped in with a cameo of 7-ball 19.
For CSK, Maheesh Theekshana was the pick of the bowlers, claiming a wicket by conceding 32 runs in his four overs. Dwayne Bravo (2-42) also picked a couple of scalps but he was quite expensive with the ball.
In reply, the defending champions lost Robin Uthappa (1), Mitchell Santner (9), and Shivam Dube (8) for a single-digit score. Ruturaj Gaikwad (30) and Ambati Rayudu steadied the ship with a 49-run stand for the fourth wicket, before Kagiso Rabada (2-23) removed the latter to reduce CSK to 89/4.
Amid the pressure situation, Rayudu played a counter-attacking knock to keep CSK in the chase but other batters failed to finish the job.
Rayudu got out in the 18th over for 39-ball 78, with CSK still needing 35 off 13 deliveries. Arshdeep Singh (1-23) bowled brilliantly in the penultimate over, conceding only 8 runs to make life difficult for the Super Kings.
While veteran wicketkeeper MS Dhoni gave some hopes to the fans with a four and six but he failed to take Chennai over the line this time around. Skipper Ravindra Jadeja too played an unbeaten knock of 21 but couldn’t see his team through.
Rishi Dhawan dismissed Dhoni (12) in the final over also defended 27 runs in the final over, restricting CSK to 176/6.
Cricket fraternity lauded the PBKS bowlers for holding their nerves in the last few overs when Rayudu and other CSK batters were on the attack.
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