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Clever spells from Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande and Simarjeet Singh triggered a massive batting collapse and helped Chennai Super Kings beat the Punjab Kings by 28 runs at Dharamsala on Sunday, May 5, 2024.
After the match, Captain Sam Curran said the pitch turned out to be slower, rather than a quick, bouncy surface that they expected.
The bowlers who shone at Dharamsala on Sunday...
Rahul Chahar
Chahar has had a decent IPL 2024 and continued from where he left off in the last match against CSK where he took 2 for 16.
After being put to bat, CSK received an early blow when Ajinkya Rahane was out cheaply.
Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Daryl Mitchell then joined forces and smashed the Punjab bowling to all corners of the park.
Mitchell (30) and Gaikwad (32) put on a 57 run stand before leggie Chahar broke the stand. He bowled a shortish ball outside the off stump, Gaikwad looked to cut it through point, was done in by the bounce and the edge was nicely pouched by the 'keeper.
Chahar next had the big fish in Shivam Dube for a golden duck. Chahar bowled the wrong un. Dube tried to cut a wide ball only to get a healthy edge, while rooted at the crease and was caught behind.
Two in two balls and CSK were in a spot.
Chahar was brought back into the attack later and took out Mitchell Santner who was looking good to partner Ravindra Jadeja for the long haul. Santner went after the loopy googly only to hole out to Sam Curran in the deep.
Although clobbered for a couple of big shots in the 18th over, Chahar eventually finished with 3 for 23 off his 4 overs.
Chahar bowled a tight spell, keeping the ball full and surprising the batters with his wrong uns. He continued his good record against CSK -- in 13 matches he has picked 15 scalps.
Harshal Patel
Harshal Patel's slower ball is the asset in his armour and he used to good effect against CSK on Sunday.
He came into the attack in the 9th over and struck in the same over. He bowled a length ball that kept low and nipped back in to hit Daryl Mitchell on the pads. Harshal appealed, the umpire gave it out before the batter reviewed it. Ball tracking showed that the ball would have clipped the middle stump and Harshal sent the set batter on his way after making 30.
Harshal varied his pace but kept his lengths full and on the stump and although he was clobbered for a couple of boundaries by Jadeja, the bowler kept bowling at that nagging length.
With Jadeja and Shardul Thakur upping the ante, Punjab needed to stem the runs at the death. Curran called upon Harshal in the 19th over and he delivered and how!
He first had Thakur bowled all end up as the off cutter slid under his bat as he went for the wild charge only to see his stumps go flying.
Next ball, Harshal had the big wicket of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He had Thala bowled for a golden duck.
Here is an interesting fact: In the IPL, Harshal has not conceded too many runs against Dhoni and has dismissed him three times. Having faced 33 balls, MSD has scored just 25 runs at an average of 8.33 and has hit just 2 fours off Harshal.
Harshal ended his spell with figures of 3 for 24 at an economy rate of 6 and had it not been for his timely strikes, Punjab would have had a bigger total to chase.
Tushar Deshpande
Having put a par score on the board, CSK needed to make inroads to make the match interesting.
Medium pacer Tushar Deshpande, who came back into the team after suffering a bout of flu, made an immediate impact. He struck in the second over of the Punjab innings.
Deshpande inflicted a twin blow, cleaning up Jonny Bairstow (7) and Rilee Rossouw (0) in three balls.
Bairstow rode his luck the first two balls of the over as the ball flew off the edge of his bat to the boundary. Deshpande then went for the variation, he bowled a good length ball, got it to nip back in and the ball deflected onto the Englishman's stumps off his pads.
Rossouw was bowled out two balls later with another peach as he was beaten for pace as the ball went past his defence and crashed into the woodwork. The two dismissals put the spoke in the wheels of Punjab's innings.
Deshpande picked up two wickets and gave 35 runs in his four over spell and once again showed his importance in the CSK bowling attack.
Ravindra Jadeja
After a good show with the bat to help propel CSK's score, Jadeja then produced a valuable spell to turn the tide in favour of the defending champions.
His three wickets for 20 runs wreaked havoc in the Punjab batting line-up.
With Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh rallying the Punjab Kings, Gaikwad decided to bring on his spinners and that plan worked for CSK.
Jadeja first had Prabhsimran caught out for 30 -- he was looking to clear the extra cover fielder only to hit it much straighter and into the hands of long off.
Brought back into the attack three overs later, Jadeja then got the scalps of Sam Curran and Ashutosh Sharma in the same over to all but end Punjab's hopes of a revival.
He first had Curran caught at long off for 7. A ball later, he had Sharma caught after his attempted slog sweep was miscued and was caught at short third man.
Jadeja now has 8 wickets (Economy Rate: 7.26) this IPL and it augurs well for India going into the T20 World Cup.
Mitchell Santner
The New Zealand left arm spinner finally made his first appearance for CSK this season and what an impactful performance he put in!
Gaikwad asked Santner to bowl the first over of the Punjab innings. He bowled a superb over giving just 2 singles to push Punjab early on the backfoot.
He put the batters under pressure and again conceed just two runs in his second over.
Santner was brought back into the attack to stem the flow of runs off the bats of Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh and he gave what his captain asked of him.
Shashank smashed Santner over his head for a four, but the bowler had the last laugh as Shashank miscued a shorter ball straight to long on.
It was the wicket that would break Punjab's spirit. Choking the runs and taking out Shashank put CSK back in the game.
Santner finished with 3-0-10-1 and his captain couldn't have asked for more!
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