Punjab Kings Chase 200+ to Beat Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk, Go Top of Table
Punjab Kings beat Chennai Super Kings again at Chepauk, a ground that used to be very strong for CSK. PBKS easily chased a target of over 200 runs and won their second match in a row this season. They won by five wickets and moved to the top of the points table. CSK batted better this time, but their bowling was poor and cost them the match.
Put into bat first, CSK lost Sanju Samson early yet again, but Ayush Mhatre stepped in to make the most of the opportunity, hitting a half-century. The 18-year-old slammed 73 off 43 balls to give the Yellow Army a strong base. Ruturaj Gaikwad (28 off 22) played a perfect second fiddle to the classy Mumbaikar as the two right-handers stitched a 96-run partnership.
Punjab Kings, despite dropping Mhatre twice, pulled things back a bit in the middle overs and saw CSK getting reduced to 130/4 before Sarfaraz Khan shifted the momentum towards his side with a whirlwind 32 off just 12 balls. Shivam Dube then provided the finishing with his unbeaten 45 off 27 balls and helped CSK to post 209/5 in 20 overs. Vyshak Vijaykumar had another quality outing and finished with 2/38. Yuzvendra Chahal and Xavier Bartlett picked up a wicket each, as did Marco Jansen. Barring Chahal, who bowled just 3 overs, and Vyshak, the rest of the attack, including Arshdeep Singh, was a tad expensive.
Punjab Kings Chase 200+ with Ease to Outclass CSK at Chepauk
Priyansh Arya took all the limelight as he began the run chase in a sizzling manner, slamming the experienced pace-attack of CSK for fun. He tonked 39 off just 11 balls to break the hosts' confidence before Matt Henry cleaned him up to get some sort of revenge. PBKS raced to 68 in the powerplay. Prabhsimran Singh (43 off 34) tried to anchor but was a victim of a terrible mix-up with Cooper Connolly (36 off 22), but it didn't affect the Australian's approach in the middle. The young Aussie hit a few cracking boundaries but eventually holed out on a low full toss bowled by Anshul Kamboj.
Shreyas Iyer was on fire from the get-go and smashed a brilliant fifty. Kamboj made an immediate comeback by dismissing the Punjab captain on exactly 50 off 29 balls. But then, Iyer ensured that PBKS were on the front foot. Nehal Wadhera failed to get going, but Shashank Singh and Marcus Stoinis did the rest to take Punjab Kings home inside 19 overs.
Kamboj and Henry both picked up two wickets each, but went for plenty. Khaleel Ahmed failed to provide a breakthrough with the new ball for the second game in a row. No magic from Noor Ahmad nor by Rahul Chahar. There will be plenty of questions on why CSK didn't opt for Jamie Overton in the XI and ended up fielding just 2 overseas.