‘Sir’ Ravindra Jadeja’s clinical performance both with the bat and the ball guided Chennai Super Kings to a 28-run win over Punjab Kings at Dharamshala on Sunday. Even though Punjab Kings’ stand-in skipper Sam Curran checked all the boxes – from winning toss to restricting the CSK to a paltry 167/9 – the hosts crumbled and couldn’t chase the target in 20 overs.
CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad lost the toss, again and Curran opted to bowl first. Rahul Chahar was magnificent with his spin attack as he picked up 3 wickets and conceded just 23 runs. Equally good was Harshal Patel, who also claimed three wickets with 24 runs. Patel also made a unique record as he sent back MS Dhoni on golden duck in the death overs. Later he said that he didn’t celebrate the dismissal as he respects Dhoni a lot.
In reply, Punjab Kings had a wobbly start as they lost two wickets inside the powerplay courtesy superb bowling efforts of Tushar Deshpande. Somewhere around seventh overs, Punjab looked comfortable in the chase. They had a target of 112 left with 8 wickets in hand. But from here on, Jadeja took charge and dismantled the defence. He picked up three wickets in his spell and conceded just 20 runs. Earlier, he was the top scorer (43 off 26) when no CSK batter could withstand the bowling attack of Punjab. With this win, CSK are now back in top 4 of the IPL points table.
