The 8th match of the IPL 2021 saw Chennai Super Kings (CSK) take on Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. PBKS won their first match against Rajasthan Royals (RR), while CSK lost to Delhi Capitals in their first match at the same venue.
MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bowl first. The decision proved to spot on as CSK got a brilliant start with the bowl from the start with Deepak Chahar and Ravindra Jadeja being the heroes.
Mayank Agarwal was bowled for a duck by a beautiful delivery by Deepak Chahar in the very first over, while KL Rahul got run out thanks to the brilliance of Ravindra Jadeja who scored a direct hit. Chris Gayle looked dangerous for his 10 runs but was caught nicely by Jadeja off Chahar.
Chahar finished his 4-over spell by further adding the wickets of Deepak Hooda for 10 and Nicholas Pooran for a duck, finishing his quota with figures of 4/13 and left PBKS reeling at 26/5 in 7 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja proved to be the common factor in the dismissals of two of the PBKS mainstays in Captain KL Rahul and Chris Gayle.
First, he caught Rahul short of the crease after Chris Gayle called him for a tight single after knocking the ball on the offside.
Then, Chris Gayle edged a full delivery from Deepak Chahar towards the backward point and Jadeja was present there to take an amazing diving catch and sent the dangerous-looking West Indian back for 10 runs.
