Mumbai: Punjab Kings defeat Chennai Super Kings by 54 runs in a lop-sided encounter at the Brabourne Stadium on Sunday.
Seeking first win of the season, Chennai Super Kings got off to a disastrous start by losing four wickets within the powerplay against Punjab Kings. Rayudu also departed after scoring 13, leaving Chennai tottering at 38 for five after eight overs. Shivam Dube scored a fifty before the defending champions got bowled out for 126. Earlier, Liam Livingstone smashed 60 off 32 balls, while Shikhar Dhawan (33) and Jitesh Sharma (26) chipped in with useful contributions to help Punjab score 180 for 8 in 20 overs. For CSK, Chris Jordon (2/23) Mukesh Choudhary (1/52), Dwayne Bravo (1/32), Ravindra Jadeja (1/34) and Dwaine Pretorius (2/30) were among the wickets. CSK gave away only 71 runs in the back-10 with a lot of credit going to their troika of overseas pacers — Pretorius, Bravo and Jordan. All three players used variations to good effect, strangling the opposition batters in the final overs.
Livingstone, Player of the Match said, ‘ The first two games hadn’t gone my way. Good to contribute to a win. Thought the boys did brilliantly. We got to a target which we thought was defendable and our seam bowlers were outstanding in the powerplay. Got to try as smart as we can. All our conversations have been ‘try and be as exciting as we can’. Nice to get a few today. I’ve been swinging hard enough, nice to get a couple off the middle today. You don’t need to remind me about it (his IPL record previously). Struggled with RR as well last year. Nice to have a performance like this. Bowling is something I really enjoy. Something I’ve spent a lot of time on. Been nice to contribute. Hopefully as the tournament goes on, my spin comes into play. I also bat in the nets with Odean Smith, he’s got me covered by a long way, trust me. I’m sure he’ll get going at some point and you’ll see why.’.
Agarwal, PBKS captain, said, ‘ We were thinking we were 5-7 short, but we knew chasing 180 wasn’t going to be easy, especially if we took wickets with the new ball and that’s exactly what we did. Winning that part of the game won us the game. (Told Livingstone) Nothing. Everyone holds their breath when he is batting. Some of the shots he hits are spectacular. Vaibhav was with us a couple of years back .. saw the talent there. He’s different, he’s young and has got some good skills. With Jitesh, Anil bhai had seen him when he was in MI. He said we’ve got to get this kid. He’s got good intent. Standout thing about him is his attitude. You can see the hunger, you can see the want. Definitely looking to play hard and positive cricket. Have to be emotionally intelligent when it doesn’t come off.’
Ravindra Jadeja, said, ‘We lost too many wickets in the powerplay, we didn’t find the momentum from ball one. We need to find a way to get better and come back stronger. (On Gaikwad) We need to give him confidence, we need to back him, we all know that he’s a very good player. We’ll definitely back him and I am sure that he’ll come good. He (Dube) has been batting so well, he batted well today, keeping him in a good frame of mind would be the key. Definitely we’ll try our best, work hard and come back stronger.’