All-round Punjab Kings thrash Chennai Super Kings

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.