Chennai spinners rock Rajasthan Royals

Wednesday 21st April 2021 07:11 EDT
 
 

Ravindra Jadeja (2-36) and Moeen Ali (3-7) helped Chennai Super Kings to score a 45-run win over Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai on Monday. After scoring 188-9, CSK restricted RR to 143-9. The huge margin of victory will be a big boost for CSK’s NRR (Net Run-Rate). RR remained in hunt thanks to a fine effort by opener Jos Buttler (49) who kept the CSK bowlers at bay. Buttler’s six in the 10th over off Jadeja saw the ball being changed.

Subsequently, CSK skipper MS Dhoni was heard on the stump microphone telling his spinners that the dry ball will take spin. That’s exactly what happened. Buttler’s 35-ball innings ended when he was cleaned up by Jadeja in the first ball of the 12th over. Jadeja then trapped Shivam Dube (17) leg-before as RR slipped to 90 for 4. David Miller (2), RR’s saviour in their previous game against Delhi Capitals, didn’t stay long as he was trapped in front by Moeen Ali in the 13th over to leave RR in trouble at 92 for 5. Moeen Ali wasn’t done yet. He then dismissed Riyan Parag (3) and Chris Morris (0) in the 15th over as RR were in dire straits at 95-7. Rahul Tewatia (20) and Jaydev Unadkat’s (24) efforts didn’t matter much as CSK coasted to a comfortable victory. Apart from the two spinners, left-arm pacer Sam Curran was on the money with figures of 2-24 from his quota of 4 overs.

Shikhar leads the chase down

On Sunday night, Shikhar Dhawan brought together all his experience and skill to enable Delhi Capitals to chase down 196 against Punjab Kings with consummate ease. DC notched their second win with 10 balls and six wickets to spare. Dhawan’s 92 off 49 balls was a statement that he is at the peak of his T20 powers at 35 years of age. Known for being sublime through the off-side, Dhawan opened up the onside too against Punjab, sending their inexperienced attack into a tizzy. He moved around the crease and worked each of the bowlers through the on-side with disdain. None of his shots were ugly and in fact matched his famed off-side play. When he lost his stumps in the 15th over of the chase, trying to paddle Jhye Richardson down to fine-leg, he had already stabbed a dagger deep into the heart of the Punjab Kings challenge.

Maxwell, AB seal the deal for RCB

Glenn Maxwell (78) and AB de Villiers (76) were the game changers as Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 38 runs to start the season with a hat-trick of wins. Opting to bat at Chepauk on Sunday afternoon, RCB rallied from early hiccups to amass a massive 204/4. In reply, KKR mustered only 168/8, most of their batsmen failing to build on starts. When Maxwell made his way into the RCB fold, there were doubters aplenty, and with good reason. The previous season, turning out for what then was Kings XI Punjab, he had made a frugal 108 runs in 13 matches. But this season the turnaround has been phenomenal, with the Australian racing to 176 runs in just three innings.

3rd consecutive loss for Sunrisers

Producing a clinical performance, the Mumbai Indians downed Sunrisers Hyderabad by 13 runs to record their second win in IPL-2021at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday night. The Sunrisers have thus lost their first three games of the competition, the first time that they’ve been off to such a poor start. Chasing 151, SRH were off to a flying start with skipper David Warner (37) and Jonny Bairstow (43) racing to 67 in just 44 balls before the Mumbai Indians bounced back by getting both the openers. As the Sunrisers folded up for 137 in the final over, a big role was played by Hardik, who pulled off two sensational direct hits to run out Warner and Abdul Samad. Earlier, Kieron Pollard bludgeoned sixes off the final two balls of the innings by Bhuvneshwar Kumar to take the Mumbai Indians to 150 for five. In a T20 game, though, a small mistake can even cost you the match.

Easy win for CSK

Low-scoring chases are tricky and on occasion a sense of complacency can crop in, but Faf du Plessis ensured that Chennai Super Kings got their IPL 2021 campaign back on track with a commanding six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings in a fairly one-sided encounter at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday. The match belonged to CSK pacer Deepak Chahar, who sealed Punjab’s fate early with magical figures of 4/13. On a pitch that MS Dhoni reckoned would do a bit early on, the 28-year-old Chahar, the first Indian to take a hat-trick in T20Is, stood up to be counted, restricting Punjab to 106/8. In their hunt for 107, the men-in-yellow kept things simple with South African Faf du Plessis and Englishman Moeen Ali giving the right impetus to their innings after the loss of opener Ruturaj Gaikwad for a sluggish 16-ball 5.

Royals find out Morris' net worth!

Two South Africans – Chris Morris and David Miller – ensured Rajasthan Royals chased down a tricky 148-run target against Delhi Capitals to put their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign back on track. The Royals defeated Capitals by three wickets with two balls to spare on a sticky Wankhede Stadium pitch on Thursday. With 27 runs remaining from 12 balls, Morris, with his 18-ball 36, proved why he deserved to be the biggest buy of the IPL this season, hitting two sixes each in the 19th and 20th overs to help the Royals cross the line in a game where margins were thin and fortunes swung rapidly. Morris was ably supported by Miller, who replaced the injured Ben Stokes and scored an all-important 43-ball 62 even as the top-order including Manan Vohra (9), Jos Buttler (2) and skipper Sanju Samson (4) went cheaply, putting the onus on the lower order to take the team across the line.

Knight Riders gift Mumbai a win

Kolkata Knight Riders batsmen committed hara-kiri at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday night, going down to Mumbai Indians by 10 runs as their chase of a paltry 153 ended at 142/7. It was a match for KKR to lose after bowling out the rivals for only 152, but they threw their wickets away rather unnecessarily to hand over the tie to the defending champions on a platter. Early wickets were the key when it came to defending such a low total, but it was MI’s death bowling, a period in which they picked up three wickets for 20 runs, that sealed the tie in their favour.


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