Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) hosted Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Mohali in the 12th match of IPL 2018. KXIP had won one and lost one match; while CSK came into the match with two wins out of two matches.
MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to field first. CSK added M Vijay in the team in place of Suresh Raina and KXIP brought in Chris Gayle to the cheers of the team’s fans. KXIP also kept Akshar Patel out and Barinder Sran made his KXIP debut.
Chris Gayle’s fiery 63 off 33 balls with 4 sixes and 7 fours and KL Rahul’s 37 off 22 balls with 7 fours enabled KXIP to put up 100 runs in just 8.4 overs. Gayle fell to Watson and Rahul was dismissed by Harbhajan to stem the flow of runs. Mayank Agarwal (30 off 19), Yuvraj (20) and Karun Nair (29 off 17) tried to recapture the momentum and take KXIP over 210, but CSK bowlers made sure that KXIP ended up on 197/7 in 20 overs.
Shardul Thakur (2/33) and Imran Tahir, playing his 200th T20 match (2/34) were the pick of CSK bowlers.
Shane Watson and M Vijay opened for CSK, who were facing the daunting task of chasing down 197. Watson looked good for his two fours in 9, but Mohit Sharma had his number.
Ambati Rayudu scored a brilliant 49 off 35 balls before a misunderstanding with Dhoni left him stranded short of the crease during a run. Jadeja also scored 19 helping the captain MS Dhoni, who was single-handedly taking CSK towards an untoward win.
Afghanistan youngster Mujeeb Ur Rahman bowled brilliantly in the middle overs giving just 18 runs in his 3 overs.
MS Dhoni smashed Mohit Sharma for 19 runs in the 18th over and then scored 19 runs off Andrew Tye in the 19th over. In the end, CSK needed 17 runs off the last over bowled by Mohit Sharma.
Mohit Sharma kept his cool in front of a rampaging MS Dhoni, who scored his highest IPL and T20 score of 79*. Dhoni batted valiantly despite hurting his back and hit a six off the last ball to lessen the quantum of defeat.
KXIP romped home by 4 runs.
BRIEF SCORES:
KXIP 197/7 (C GAYLE 63; S THAKUR 2/33) beat CSK 193/5 (MS DHONI 79*; A TYE 2/47) by 4 runs
