Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni gave credit to the batting unit of the Kings XI Punjab. Punjab won the contest against CSK by six wickets after dominating performance from KL Rahul The Punjab opener scored a fine knock of 71 runs. Rahul was on fire as he was able to get going from the word go.
Earlier in the day, Chennai Super Kings posted a decent score of 170 after Ravichandran Ashwin won the toss and decided to bowl first. Faf du Plessis played a fine knock of 96 runs from 53 balls with the help of 10 fours and four sixes. Furthermore, Suresh Raina scored 53 off 38 balls with the help of five fours and two sixes.
However, Chennai Super Kings could not add the finishing touches to their innings as they scored only 20 runs in the last three overs. Sam Curran was the pick of the Punjab bowlers as he scalped three wickets and conceded 35 runs. Furthermore, Mohammed Shami took two wickets and gave away 17 runs in his three overs.
KL Rahul was on fire.
On the other hand, Kings XI Punjab got off to a flying start. KL Rahul was able to hit the ground running as the stylish batsman scored a fine knock of 71 runs from 36 balls with the help of seven fours and five sixes.
Rahul was on song as he timed the ball with perfection and took the Chennai Super Kings bowlers to the cleaners. The flamboyant batsman completed his fifty off just 19 balls as he batted with an impressive strike rate. However, Harbhajan Singh was able to get two wickets in two balls as KL Rahul and Chris Gayle were dismissed in quick succession.
CSK will remain in the top two.
MS Dhoni said while talking to host broadcaster in the post-match presentation, “I will give the credit to them. It was not an easy wicket. With 3 spinners, it was difficult to manoeuvre in the first 6 overs. But KL batted really well and Pooran towards the end was good with his lusty hits. It was a really good batting effort from their side. We did whatever we could, it did not work for us. Quite happy with the way we bowled, despite giving a few runs at the start. That’s something you have to keep it mind, If you can’t win a game, you make sure you get the opposition to get the runs in most number of overs”.
Dhoni added, “(Qualifying for top 2) Yes, and that’s something you have to keep in mind. We want to win the game, but if the opposition does well, you have to quickly adapt and re-assess. The first seven overs, we were quite down, but then the bowlers were able to pull things back a little bit. They bowled well in the last 8-9 overs for us.”
Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings will stay in the top two teams even if Mumbai Indians win their contest against Kolkata Knight Riders. CSK’s net run rate is better than Delhi Capitals and thus they would have two chances in the playoff stages.