CHENNAI: Urvil Patel's blitzkrieg — where he made 65 in just 23 balls — and Jamie Overton's 3/36 propelled Chennai Super Kings to beat Lucknow Super Giants by five wickets in the IPL on Sunday evening at the MA Chidambaram stadium.
In a contest that went till the final over, it was Urvil who stole the show with a record-equalling 13-ball half-century as he rained sixes at Chepauk. The total of 204 did not look out of reach, despite the lull in the middle-overs, because of the start from Sanju Samson and Ruturaj Gaikwad before Urvil took over.
Coming in at No 3, Urvil had been playing cameos in recent games but this time he took it further. He started with three consecutive sixes of Avesh Khan before smashing three sixes and a four off Digvesh Rathi. At one point, it looked like he could actually break the 12-ball record barrier — Yuvraj Singh's 12-ball fifty in 2007 T20 World Cup — but that did not happen as Urvil eventually reached the milestone in 13 deliveries, equalling Yashasvi Jaiswal's record. By the time he got out, CSK was already 126/2 in 9.2 overs, and had ample time to adapt and get across the line.
CSK skipper Gaikwad was a relieved man after the win and praised his bowlers for the effort. "Yes (got too close), but at the end, chasing 200, when you start the innings, it will always go to the 18th or the 19th or the 20th over. We started off really well in the powerplay, but it was a bit tacky for a new batter to just go in and play the shots. But it's important that we got the job done. It's been a while since we chased 200, so good to chase it," said an elated Ruturaj after the match.
Earlier in the afternoon, CSK was at the receiving end of a similar counterattack when Josh Inglis smashed 85 from just 33 balls to set up the LSG innings. Inglis scored effortlessly at the expense of Akeal Hosein who opened the attack with Anshul Kamboj. Mukesh Chaudhary too was not spared. Inglis chose the right ball to attack and also his shot selection was spot on as he raced to his 40s in just 14 balls.
Later, Inglis used his feet well, got to the pitch of the ball and lofted it inside out off Akeal to get his fifty. Gaikwad and CSK had no answers until much later as he admitted after the match. "Huge credit and hats off to Josh. I think he played some amazing shots, which we actually didn't have any answer to and you can't quite plan for it or you can't quite set field for it. But after the first time-out, Sanju just came in and he said, if we have it in us, we have to make a comeback here and try and restrict them as low as possible. So whatever around 220, it was still fine. So I think that just pumped us up, everyone."
Inglis fell shortly after to Overton and CSK kept LSG in check in the second half of the innings, restricting them to 203/8. With the win, CSK moved to fifth place in the table and kept their play-off hopes alive. They need two wins from three games, one of which is an away contest against the same opponent in Lucknow, to comfortably finish in top four.
