Spinners Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar took two wickets each in economical bowling spells of 2-17 and 2-16, while Jonny Bairstow and Rilee Rossouw hit useful 40s each to help Punjab Kings register a seven-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday.
Brar and Chahar applied brakes on CSK’s batting in the middle overs through their nagging line and length to return with collective figures of 4-33 in eight overs and an economy rate of 4.25, while conceding no boundaries, as the hosts’ were restricted to a below-par 162/7.
In reply, Bairstow and Rossouw hit 46 and 43 respectively while sharing a 64-run stand for the second wicket. Shashank Singh and Sam Curran ensured PBKS completed the chase with seven wickets in hand and 13 balls to spare. PBKS are now at seventh place in the points table, after pulling off their fifth victory in a row over CSK, who were hampered by dew and losing Deepak Chahar to hamstring injury just two balls into the second innings.
For CSK, barring captain Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 62, other batters struggled to get on top of PBKS bowlers on a fresh red-soil pitch having turn and bounce for spinners. After losing no wicket in power-play, CSK had a platform set for a big total. But Brar and Chahar turned the game on its head by bowling stump to stump line and allowing the odd ball to get some turn to set the base for PBKS outclassing CSK in their home den.
Pushed into batting first, Gaikwad was stylish in punching and ramping Arshdeep Singh for a brace of fours in the second over. Though Arshdeep got a change of ends, he was hit for 14 runs in the fifth over – Rahane slammed him over point, while Gaikwad cut him twice through the same region to take three boundaries off it.
Rahane brought out the pull, cut and punch off Curran on the last three deliveries of the sixth over, and take CSK to 55/0 at the end of power-play, making it the first time in this season of them not losing a wicket in the six-over phase.
But once Curran brought spinners on, PBKS were able to put in an almighty squeeze on CSK, who couldn’t get a boundary in the middle overs. Rahane holed out to deep mid-wicket off Brar, who trapped a sweeping Shivam Dube plumb lbw for a golden duck. Chahar joined in by trapping Ravindra Jadeja lbw, who was looking to play it on the leg-side.
Impact Player Sameer Rizvi’s laborious innings ended when he was caught by a sliding third man, while trying to ramp off Harshal Patel. But Gaikwad continued to stay afloat, getting his fifty in 44 balls by hammering Curran over long-on for six and pulled the left-arm pacer for another maximum to take 15 runs off the 16th over.
Moeen Ali lofted Arshdeep for six and four respectively, before the pacer bounced back by castling Gaikwad with a yorker. The call to get Chahar bowl the 19th over paid off when the leg-spinner castled Moeen. MS Dhoni powered a four and six off a wayward Arshdeep in the final over to take CSK past 160, before being run-out on the last ball, also ending his streak of seven unbeaten knocks in the competition.
Chasing 163, Prabhsimran Singh hit a 10-ball 13 before a leading edge on his flick was caught by mid-off, giving Richard Gleeson his maiden IPL wicket. But Rilee Rossouw was unstoppable from the get go – taking consecutive fours each off Gleeson and Mustafizur Rahman.
From the other end, Bairstow cut and pulled Shardul Thakur for a brace of fours as PBKS reached 52/1 at the end of power-play. Post that, Bairstow was severe on Jadeja in his opening over, cutting at the last moment and pulling powerfully to take two fours.
It felt like Bairstow began from where he left in his 48-ball 100 against Kolkata Knight Riders last week – seen from him pulling and slog-sweeping off Moeen for six and four respectively. After cutting Jadeja for another four, Bairstow’s knock ended when a short ball from Dube, bowling for the first time in IPL 2024, was ramped behind to keeper.
But Rossouw pulled him for six over square leg, followed a four cut through cover to take 14 from the tenth over. Shardul Thakur came in to castle Rossouw with a full toss, and he could have got Shashank’s wicket if Daryl Mitchell hadn’t made mess of a chance at mid-off.
Shashank and Curran hit five boundaries between themselves while sharing an unbroken 50-run stand off 37 balls for the fourth wicket to ensure PBKS got another win on the road, with the winning runs coming off an overthrow.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 162/7 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 62, Ajinkya Rahane 29; Rahul Chahar 2-16, Harpreet Brar 2-17) lost to Punjab Kings 163/3 in 17.5 overs (Jonny Bairstow 46, Rilee Rossouw 43; Shivam Dube 1-14, Richard Gleeson 1-30) by seven wickets