Sikandar Raza kept his cool and got the last three runs needed off the last ball, helping Punjab Kings beat Chennai Super Kings by four wickets in a tense Indian Premier League match on Sunday. With this win, Punjab Kings have moved up to fifth place in the table of points.
The Chennai Super Kings, who have won the tournament four times, are in fourth place.
To win, Punjab Kings had to get 201 runs, so Matheesha Pathirana had to give up only two runs in the first three deliveries of the last over. But Raza stayed cool even though he was under a lot of pressure. From the next two deliveries, he scored two runs each time.
Raza (who wasn’t out) hit the last ball toward the boundary, but Maheesh Theekshana stopped it just before the ropes with a great fielding play. By that time, the PBKS batters had already scored three runs, leaving the Chepauk crowd speechless.
Prabhsimran Singh (42), Liam Livingstone (40), Sam Curran (29), and Jitesh Sharma (21) all made important contributions to Punjab’s final score of 201 for 6. CSK opener Devon Conway’s brilliant hit of 92 not out didn’t matter, though.
Before Livingstone and Curran changed things around, it looked like it would be hard for Punjab to win in the middle overs. In the end, the 24 runs that Tushar Deshpande gave up in the 16th over were very important. With 12 balls to go and 22 runs needed, Jitesh Sharma hit a four off the first ball and two off the second.
He missed the fourth ball and was caught in the deep by replacement Shaik Rasheed. When the fielder caught the ball and fell close to the boundary rope, the third judge called the batter out.
Deshpande’s four overs gave him 3 wickets for 49 runs, while Ravindra Jadeja’s four overs gave him 2 wickets for 32 runs.
At Chepauk, no team has ever chased more than 193 runs against CSK.
When the Punjab bowlers first started trying to get runs, captain Shikhar Dhawan (28) and Prabhsimran Singh batted quickly together until Dhawan was out by Deshpande. In the power play, the starters got to 50. Matheesha Pathirana came off the top edge when Dhawan tried to cut over the infield.
Before Atharva Taide (13), who was with Prabhsimran, became Jadeja’s first victim, he and Prabhsimran added 44 runs quickly. Prabhsimran jumped out of the line when he saw the ball turn just a little, which beat him and made it easy for Dhoni to stump him.
The next person to go was Taide, who was caught and bowled by Jadeja for 13. By the 11th over, Punjab was down to 94 for 3.
PBKS seemed to be losing control as the batters couldn’t find the big over and the needed run rate kept going up. But Raza and M Shahrukh Khan (2 not out) hit 15 runs in eight balls, which was enough for PBKS to reach their goal.
Earlier, CSK put up 200 for 4 with the help of Conway’s great perfect 92. Dhoni hit two sixes in his last two deliveries, which made the crowd go crazy.
When Ravindra Jadeja (12) fell, the crowd went crazy when Dhoni walked on the field. He didn’t hit the first ball he saw from Sam Curran (4-0-46-1), but he hit the second one for a single by hitting it down the ground.
On the next ball, Dhoni hit a six off a wide delivery, and then he hit a full toss for a maximum. He ended the game with 13 runs not out, and CSK did it in style.
When the home team chose to bat first, Conway hit 16 fours and a six during his perfect 52-ball innings. He and his opening partner, Ruturaj Gaikwad (37), added 86 runs together to get the home team on the way to a good score.
Curran, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, and Sikandar Raza each took out one batsman for Punjab.
Conway and Gaikwad kept up their good batting form by getting the team off to a good start with 50 runs in the sixth over.
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In Kagiso Rabada’s first over, Conway hit two boundaries. This set the tone for the rest of his batting, which was smooth. As CSK picked up the pace, he hit two fours in a row in the sixth over, which was bowled by Curran.
The powerplay went to 57 runs, and the bowlers for the Punjab Kings had a hard time making an impact.
Gaikwad got out against the flow of the game.
He jumped out to a Sikander Raza ball, and Jitesh Sharma caught him with his stumps. He was out for 37.
Shivam Dube, who has a big bat, was moved up in the order, and he hit two big sixes, one-off Rabada. Together with Conway, he helped the Super Kings add 44 runs in 26 balls. This helped them step up their game.
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