IPL 2015: Chennai Super Kings beat Kings XI Punjab by 97 runs, Stars and flops
IPL 2015: Chennai Super Kings beat Kings XI Punjab by 97 runs, Stars and flops
Against a top quality side, the opposition needs to raise the bar and when you drop sitters and mis-field, there is nothing much you can complain. That was the story for Kings XI Punjab on Saturday. They played the most entertaining cricket in the last edition and now almost half way through the eighth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), they find themselves at the bottom of the table.
It was another clinical show from Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at their fortress in Chennai and now they find themselves at the top of the points table. They did every possible thing right on Saturday and it began with the toss, when MS Dhoni called it correct at the toss. Brendon McCullum, once again got them off to a flier along with Dwayne Smith. Throughout the innings, CSK maintained the momentum and they were aided by some poor fielding. There were misfields, dropped catches and overthrows. Mitchell Johnson was the culprit twice – dropping two sitters – one of McCullum and the other of Suresh Raina. CSK got to 192 and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) had enough firepower in their armoury to chase it down. They had done it in their previous match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Tuesday, so there were no reasons why they couldn’t do it against the opposition, whom they beat thrice in the last season.
Much of the success for CSK depended on the start Virender Sehwag would get them to. He failed again, giving his wicket away in the first over. None of the batsmen could get going and when, Dhoni introduced his trusted spinners – Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, they inflicted severe damage to the much talked about KXIP line-up, which has Glenn Maxwell missing from their ranks. All KXIP managed was 95 from their 20 overs, a loss by 97 runs. Humiliating and confidence shattering defeat to say the least, for a side that entered the tournament as one of the favourites.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 192 for 3 in 20 over [Brendon McCullum 66 (44), MS Dhoni 41 (27)] bt Kings XI Punjab 95 for 9 in 20 overs [Murali Vijay 34 (32); Ashish Nehra 4-0-16-2, Mohit Sharma 3-0-10-1, Ravindra Jadeja 4-0-22-3, Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-14-2] – by 97 runs