Mumbai: Miserly bowling by Punjab Kings’ pacers Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh proved the turning point of the match as they went on to beat Chennai Super Kings by 11 runs at the Wankhede Stadium.
After Punjab Kings rode on a brilliant unbeaten 88 by opener Shikhar Dhawan, Chennai were in cruise mode with Ambati Rayudu going great guns in the middle overs.
They had ended the powerplay with nearly the same runs as Punjab Kings — 37/1 versus 32/2. Though they lost a few wickets more as compared to PBKS in the middle overs, they too managed to score 86 runs in the overs from 7 to 15.
However, in the death overs (16-20), Punjab Kings managed to score 63/3 runs while Chennai Super Kings could score only 58/2, thus falling short by 11 runs eventually.
It all started after Rayudu had hammered pacer Sandeep Sharma for 22 runs in the 16th over, blasting three sixes and a four. That brought down the equation to a more manageable 47 runs from 24 deliveries.
But in the 17th over, Arshdeep Singh conceded only six runs, sending down a couple of yorkers pitched outside off-stump and full-length deliveries on the stumps as Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja could not get the ball to the boundary.
In the next over, Jadeja hit a four off Rabada and took a single. But Rabada had the last laugh as he got Rayudu with a peach of a delivery, a yorker speared into his legs that evaded the wild heave by Rayudu and came off his pads to rattle the stumps.
The final delivery of the over was a dot ball to MS Dhoni as Rabada gave away only six runs, but more importantly, sent back the well-set Rayudu.
Arshdeep Singh made things further difficult in the 19th over, conceding only eight runs, again spearing in wide yorkers mixed with full-length deliveries wide on the stumps as MS Dhoni could manage only one boundary. That superb over brought down things to the final over with CSK needing 27 off six deliveries to win the match.
Dhoni blasted a six off the first delivery of the 20th over bowled by Rishi Dhawan and though the Indian medium pacer sent down a wide on the second delivery, he landed a yorker on the middle stumps on the second legal delivery.
CSK then lost the match when Dhoni chased a half volley down the leg side, what otherwise could have been judged a wide, and skied a leading edge to deep midwicket where Jonny Bairstow completed a simple catch, around 15 metres inside the boundary rope.
CSK could score only 15 runs off the 20th over with Jadeja and Dhoni hitting a six each and fell short by 11 runs eventually — the superb bowling by Arshdeep Singh and Rabada eventually sealing the victory for PBKS.
–IANS