Chennai Super Kings 167 for 9 (Jadeja 43, Chahar 3-23, Harshal 3-24) beat Punjab Kings 139 for 9 (Prabhsimran 30, Jadeja 3-20, Deshpande 2-35) by 28 runs
Punjab Kings showcased their very best and worst selves all in the course of about 45 minutes. In the end the bad outweighed the good as they lost to Chennai Super Kings by 28 runs.
Sam Curran’s men had dominated proceedings right from the toss. A target of 168 should’ve been well within their reach, especially when they strung together a period of play where they hit six boundaries in 18 balls between the fifth and the seventh overs.
The equation at that point was 112 off 78 with eight wickets in hand. This was not the time to collapse but collapse they did, losing both their set batters, their captain and their finisher. They tumbled from 62 for 2 to 78 for 7.
Harshal back to his old self
181 runs. That’s how many Harshal Patel gave up in his first four games of this season. 181 runs. That’s also how many Harshal has given up over his last seven games this season. He’s also picked up 13 wickets along the way. He’s become a bowler transformed – or so it seems. Really though, a death overs specialist runs the risk of splits like these. It’s the difference between executing what you want perfectly and missing your mark by a few inches. Harshal secured two of his three wickets with slow, sharply dipping yorkers. One of them was MS Dhoni for a first-ball duck. He spoke about how he doesn’t rely on technique as much as feel, which is why he wasn’t at his best at the start of the season; he was rusty. But with overs under his belt, he has gotten better and better.
This pitch, on first sight, seemed to be pretty good for batting. But eventually it became clear that it was playing some tricks. Harshal mentioned that since it was a day game and the square was so dry he was getting reverse swing from as early when he came on to bowl, in the 10th over. Later, in the evening, the new ball started to deck around. It offered extra bounce, which interfered with the shots that Gaikwad and Dube tried to play, but also kept low, without which Daryl Mitchell might not have been lbw. There was turn on offer too. Both Chahar and Jadeja produced double-wicket overs.
