CHENNAI: Riding on Jonny Bairstow's 46 and Rilee Rossouw's 43, the Punjab Kings defeated the Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets in the 2024 IPL round-robin match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Wednesday.
Chasing 163 for a win, Punjab lost Prabhsimran Singh cheaply. Later, Bairstow and Rossouw did the rescue act. Bairstow was aggressive of the duo and scored runs at a steady clip, attacking the right ball. He was at ease against all the CSK bowlers.
With Deepak Chahar pulling out after bowling two balls due to strain or pull, CSK were a bowler short and thus they employed Shivam Dube.
This move turned out to pay rich dividends as Dube removed the well-settled Bairstow. But Dube's joy was short-lived, as in the very same over, Rossouw carted him for a huge six and a boundary to take the visitors close to the 100-run mark.
As Rossouw was slowly marching towards his 50 and also trying to guide his side close to the target, he was castled by Shardul Thakur, done in by the change of pace.
Earlier, Ruturaj Gaikwad’s valuable 62 came in handy for Chennai Super Kings to post 162/7 in 20 overs against Punjab Kings at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Wednesday.
Put into bat first, CSK could not get going as the ball was not coming on to the bat. Gaikwad, who is in fine touch, began in style, executing a copybook square drive off Arshdeep Singh and the ball raced to the fence. A few balls later, he went for an upper cut to notch up another boundary at the expense of Arshdeep and left the crowd thrilled with his innovative shot.
However, during the power play, Chennai managed to make only 55 runs.
Once spin was introduced, run-making became even harder, with Ajinkya Rahane getting out to Harpreet Brar for runs.
Chennai promoted Shivam Dube, but he too fell in the same over for a first-ball duck. Brar induced Rahane to play an ambitious shot and the former India captain holed out to Rilee Russouw at deep mid-wicket. Later, Shivam Dube went for a big sweep and missed the line by Brar to be adjudged leg before.
At 65 for 2, CSK were under immense pressure and the think tank of the host decided to send Ravindra Jadeja to stabilise the innings, but that was not to be. Before Jadeja could settle down, Chahar trapped him right in front. From thereon, Sam Curran rotated Brar and Rahul Chahar to put the brakes on CSK.
Impact sub Sameer Rizvi joined Ruturaj and was all at sea against the pace of Rabada. He and Gaikwad could not hit boundaries for almost nine overs.
Both Chahar and Brar completed their quota of overs without conceding one as well. Rizvi eventually succumbed to Rabada, but once again, CSK promoted Moeen Ali instead of Daryl Mitchell.
That is when Gaikwad hit a flurry of sixes and reached his half-century. His end came when he went for a predetermined shot off Arshdeep and missed the line to be castled. Once Ali fell, it was up to Dhoni and Mitchell to take them to a respectable total.
Curran kept one over of Chahar to bowl the penultimate over against Dhoni and the spinner delivered. Dhoni could not get the necessary boundaries against the spinner, who finished with 2/16 in four overs.
When Arshdeep came back, Dhoni hit him for a four but when the boundaries did not come, he held strike and refused to take singles with Mitchell at the other end. He would eventually hit a six off the fifth delivery before getting run out in the last ball of the innings.
Earlier, Matheesha Pathirana had a niggle and Tushar Deshpande was not well, prompting CSK to play Shardul Thakur and Richard Gleeson (debut) in their place.
Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 162/7 in 20 ovs (Ruturaj 62, Rahane 29; Chahar 2/16, Brar 2/17) lost to Punjab Kings 163/3 in 17.5 ovs (Bairstow 46, Rossouw 43).