Quantcast

Match Report:

Scorecard

Destructive opening spell hands Punjab thumping defeat

Punjab Kings lose five wickets in the first 38 balls of the match as Chennai cruise to an easy victory

Fast bowler Deepak Chahar grabbed 4-13, including 18 dot balls, to lead the Chennai Super Kings in an emphatic six-wicket IPL victory over the Punjab Kings with 26 balls remaining.

Chahar destroyed Punjab's top order on Friday in an impressive spell of seam bowling to restrict the Kings to 8-106 from their 20 overs, a run rate of just 5.3 an over.

The Kings lost five wickets in the first 38 balls of the match to essentially end the contest inside the first hour.

England's Moeen Ali then scored 46 off 31 and South African Faf du Plessis remained unbeaten on 36 as Chennai recorded its first victory of the season, reaching 4-107 with more than four overs to spare.

Punjab's Australian pair Jhye Richardson (0-21 from three overs) and Riley Meredith (0-21 from 3.4 overs) were unable to make an impact with the ball, while Richardson scored 15 from 22 balls having come to the crease with the score on 5-26.

Image Id: 843C995ACF7141D891559EF5A0042F74 Image Caption: Jhye Richardson was required to bat in just the seventh over // BCCI-Sportzpics

Earlier, Chahar had justified captain MS Dhoni's decision to field first after winning the toss. 

The right-arm quick hit the top of Mayank Agarwal's off stump with his fourth ball and Ravindra Jadeja's direct hit from short cover left captain KL Rahul well short of his crease.

Chahar removed the West Indian duo of Chris Gayle (10) and Nicholas Pooran (0) in his third over before he capped off his brilliant spell by having Deepak Hooda (10) caught at mid-off to leave Punjab reeling at 5-26 in the seventh over.

"There was no dew and enough seam movement," Dhoni said. "Over the years, he (Chahar) has matured into a death bowler too but he's somebody who gets more purchase than other bowlers."

Shahrukh Khan, who top-scored with 47 off 36 balls, couldn't up the scoring rate as Jadeja bowled a tidy spell of 0-19. Khan finally holed out to Jadeja in the last over to give the economical Englishman Sam Curran (1-12) his first wicket.

 

Image Id: 1355B9F2584B48F185F8694706B83766 Image Caption: Riley Meredith finished with 0-21 from 3.4 overs // BCCI-Sportzpics

Despite two late wickets for fast bowler Mohammed Shami (2-21), Punjab were never in the hunt as Ali and du Plessis shared a 66-run second-wicket stand to give Dhoni's team its first win in two games.

"There's not much more to say when any team loses five wickets in the first six or seven overs," Rahul said. 

"You smile and see how you can do better if we get a similar situation. It's important to learn from our mistakes, that's the kind of team that we want to be."