In the 19th over, Jadeja smashed two sixes and two boundaries against Prasidh Krishna, and CSK were left needing only four runs in the final over.
Follow Us
Ravindra Jadeja proved to be the hero for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) yet again as the men in yellow beat the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in an absolute thriller of a contest in the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday. Jadeja made 22 runs off just eight deliveries in what was an incredible cameo. The Knight Riders had posted 171 runs on the board and the Super Kings needed every single ball of their 20 overs to reach the target of 172. At the end of the match, CSK were 172-8, beating KKR by two wickets who had made 171-6. The win took MS Dhoni’s men to the top of the IPL table. It was a match of exciting twists especially towards the end as the game swung back and forth in the two teams’ favour. Sunil Narine did an outstanding job of stretching it to the final delivery as the Super Kings only needed four runs off the last six balls.
The Super Kings had started the run chase quite well as both their openers got scores in the 40s. Rituraj Gaikwad continued his good form with the bat as he made 40 off just 28 deliveries while Faf du Plessis scored 43 off 30. Moeen Ali also played a valuable knock of 32 off 28 balls.
The CSK middle-order, however, was disappointing on the day. No one could manage to get a good score on the board, until Ravindra Jadeja came to the middle. In the 19th over, he smashed two sixes and two boundaries against Prasidh Krishna. The Super Kings were left needing only four runs in the final over.
There would be another twist in the tale, however. KKR skipper Eoin Morgan handed Sunil Narine the ball as Sam Curran was on strike. The first ball was a wicket as Curran fell and the next was a dot. But Thakur played the ball on the leg side for the third and it almost reached the boundary. A brilliant fielding effort on the rope denied the boundary, as the CSK batters ran three.
With Jadeja on strike and CSK needing one run from three, the match seemed decided. However, Narine bowled a dot for his fourth ball and dismissed Jadeja with the next. With just one run to get from one ball, Deepak Chahar walked out to the middle, and thankfully for him, Narine’s ball pitched much shorter than he had hoped and he comfortably scored the winning run.
Despite the loss, it was an outstanding bowling performance by the Knight Riders. Sunil Narine picked three crucial wickets in his spell while Prasidh Krishna, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, and Andre Russell picked one wicket each. They will not be happy with the defeat but there are certainly a lot of positives to take back for Eoin Morgan.
After a slow start, KKR batters Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, and Dinesh Karthik came through for the men in purple. After Rahul Tripathi, who contributed 45 runs to the innings, was dismissed, the Knights were 89-4. Rana batted brilliantly, scoring 37 runs off just 27 deliveries. He was unbeaten until the very end. His partnership with Karthik is what propelled KKR to a score of more than 170. The wicketkeeper scored 26 runs in 11 deliveries. Russell, the all-rounder, also contributed an invaluable cameo of 20 runs off 15 deliveries.
The CSK bowlers can take a lot of positives from their performance as well. Pacer Shardul Thakur was the standout bowler, picking up two wickets in four overs while conceding only 20 runs. Ravindra Jadeja also bowled brilliantly, picking up one wicket in four overs while conceding only 21 runs. Josh Hazlewood, an Australian pacer, was also among the wickets, but he was not economical. Hazlewood took two wickets and allowed 40 runs in four overs.
Rishabh Pant's explosive last-over blitz ignites IPL 2024 amid T20 World Cup comeback talks
