
The match between the three time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab was an eyedropper to watch as both the teams wanted to register their 2nd win in this edition. It concluded in CSK's favour as they won the match with all ten wickets in hand. Before the match, there was a talk of CSK's performance this year. Most importantly about their opening pair as they failed to fire at the top other than Faf du plessis, who was single handedly fighting in all of their matches. And also the three consecutive defeats after 2014, so they had to prove their worth in this match.
On the match day, Punjab won the toss and elected to bat first. In came the consistent opening pair of this IPL, Mayank Agarwal and their skipper KL Rahul. They started and scored well in the powerplay but Chawla sent Mayank(29) back to the pavilion in the 8th over. Mandeep Singh was also in great touch with the bat scoring 27 runs before throwing his wicket to Jadeja. Nicholas Pooran came out to the middle to partner up with the skipper. At one stage they were eyeing to get past 200 easily. But Shardhul Thakur took back to back wickets of Rahul(63) and Pooran(33), and decreased the scoring rate. In the16th over when the English all-rounder Sam Curran was bowling, Pooran smashed a slower delivery straight into the deep mid wicket, finding Kedar Jadhav who did not even attempt to get first to the ball. The two Punjab batsmen ran a double between his sloppy fielding, prompting Jadeja to show his frustration on Jadhav, before the next delivery, which was caught on the camera. In the end Punjab scored 178/4 in 20 overs. The Spinners took one wicket each and Thakur got two wickets.
CSK started their chase with Faf and Watson. Both the openers were on a destructive mode and completely dominated Punjab's bowling attack. Watson was seen back in form which would have relieved CSK's headache of top order Collapse. Both Faf (87*) and Watson (83*) took their team home with 14 balls to spare and ten wickets in hand. Shane Watson was adjudged the Man of the match.
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