Chennai Super Kings spank Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs to win fourth IPL title.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings claimed their fourth Indian Premier League (IPL) title with a comfortable 27-run victory against Kolkata Knight Riders in the final in Dubai on Friday.
Put into bat, Chennai amassed 192-3 with opener Faf du Plessis anchoring their innings with 86 off 59 balls.
Ruturaj Gaikwad made 32, while Robin Uthappa (31) and Moeen Ali (37 not out) chipped in with useful cameos.
Du Plessis brought his A game to play a knock of 86 runs and help CSK post a total of 192/3 against KKR.
Sent into bat, CSK got off to a steady start as openers Gaikwad and du Plessis put on 50 runs inside the first six overs. During this course, Gaikwad went on to leapfrog KL Rahul to become the leading run-scorer in this year's IPL.
The much-needed breakthrough to KKR was provided by Sunil Narine as he dismissed Gaikwad (32) in the 9th over, ending the 61-run opening stand.
Du Plessis continued on his merry way and he completed his half-century in the 11th over of the innings with CSK nicely poised at 97/1.
Uthappa scored 31 off 15 balls and he proved a perfect foil to du Plessis and the duo put on 63 runs for the second wicket. However, Narine once again got among the action as he dismissed Uthappa in the 14th over, reducing CSK to 124/2.
Moeen Ali next came out to bat and he also played the very same way and KKR bowlers were left searching for answers. In the final three overs, CSK managed to add 39 more runs, taking the score past the 190-run mark. Moeen remained unbeaten on 37.
Kolkata, led by England white-ball captain Eoin Morgan, got off to a flying start with a 91-run stand between openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer before wheels came off their innings and they finished on 165-9.
Morgan made four and only four Kolkata batsmen managed double digit scores.
Chasing 193, KKR got off to a rollicking start as the opening duo of Gill and Iyer put on 55 runs inside the first six overs. Iyer continued with his form and he brought up his half-century off just 31 balls in the 10th over of the innings.
Just when it seemed like the opening stand was finally broken by Ravindra Jadeja as he had Gill caught, but the replays showed the ball hit the 'spider-cam', and hence it was deemed a dead ball, Gill got a reprieve and at the halfway mark, KKR's score read 88/0.
However, Iyer (50) was finally sent back to the pavilion in the 11th over by Shardul Thakur and the 91-run opening stand came to an end. In the very same over, Nitish Rana was dismissed for a duck, and KKR was reduced to 93/2, still needing 100 runs for the win from 54 balls.
The next to fall for KKR were Sunil Narine (2), Shubman Gill (51), Dinesh Karthik (9), and Shakib Al Hasan (0) and the innings quickly derailed with Eoin Morgan's side left at 120/6 in the 15th over, still needing 73 runs for the win.
In the end, the task proved too much for KKR, and CSK ended up winning the IPL 2021 title.
Shardul Thakur returned 3-38, while Ravindra Jadeja claimed 2-37 and took two stunning catches to hurt Kolkata.
