Punjab Kings VS Chennai Super Kings: PBKS hands CSK their third consecutive defeat
Punjab Kings registered their second win of the season by defeating the defending champions by 54 runs. To answer all the criticism in favouritism of dew playing its role and aiding in the chase, we have seen three back-to-back games where the team defending the total has won the match.
Shikhar Dhawan big knock helps PKDhawan-Livingstone took Punjab to a good total.
Opting to bowl first on winning the toss by Chennai Super Kings, Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan opened innings for Punjab Kings. Mukesh Choudhary struck the early wicket of skipper Mayank Yadav for 4 runs and Bhanuka Rajapaksa was caught in a run-out off Chris Jordan. Then Liam Livingstone joined Shikar Dhawan on the crease and partnered 95-runs off 52 balls. Punjab bowlers looked to lose the plot here despite striking early wickets. However, Shikhar Dhawan got dismissed at 33 by Dwayne Bravo and Liam Livingstone at 60 by skipper Ravindra Jadeja. Jitesh Sharma played a quick inning of 26 runs to push the scoreboard ahead. CSK bowlers made a superb come back here with the ball and restricted Punjab Kings at 180/8 was at one time projected score went above 210.
Disastrous start for CSK top-order
The total looked to be an easy chase on the pitch of Brabourne. However, Punjab Kings' bowlers gave a challenging time to the batters. Debutant Vaibhav Arora and Kagiso Rabada scythed through the top order in the powerplay. The five top-order batters: Robin Uthappa, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Ambtai Rayudu, and skipper Ravindra Jadeja got dismissed for a total of 36 runs by making contributions of 13, 1, 0, 13, and 0 runs, respectively. CSK didn’t look to find a way back into the game despite a 30-ball 57 from Shivam Dube. MS Dhoni from the other end aided in holding up wickets while NRR kept skyrocketing. CSK ultimately got wrapped up for 126 in 18 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja: We lost too many wickets in the powerplay; we didn't find the momentum from ball one. We need to find a way to get better and come back stronger. (On Gaikwad) We need to give him confidence, we need to back him, we all know that he's a very good player. We'll back him and I am sure that he'll come good. He (Dube) has been batting so well, he batted well today, keeping him in a good frame of mind would be the key. We'll try our best, work hard and come back stronger.
Punjab Kings secured the second win of the season, and Chennai Super Kings received the third consecutive loss of the season. This has been the second time since 2018 that CSK was bowled-out. Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, all the big guns of the IPL history, have not won any match in the tournament so far. This is a super exciting edition of the Indian Premier League.