|
|
Chennai Super Kings defeated Kings XI Punjab by 24 runs in an IPL match played at Kingsmead on Wednesday (May 20). With this defeat Kings XI were knocked out of the tournament while Super Kings entered the semis. Deciding to bat first after wining the toss, Chennai Super Kings got off to a good start as openers George Bailey (15) and Parthiv Patel began (32) to score runs briskly. After the dismissal of Bailey, Suresh Raina (20) joined the party. But the game suddenly started to turn in favour of Punjab team after the dismissal of Patel.
The scoring rate began to fall drastically with the loss of S Badrinath (4) and skipper M S Dhoni (2) in quick succession. In the end, Super Kings were restricted to 116 for nine in their allotted 20 overs. Sreesanth (2-23) and Pathan (2-32) bowled some excellent deliveries to trouble the Chennai batsmen. Apart from them, Bret Lee also bowled some tight spells but failed to get any wicket. In reply, Kings XI Punjab started their innings in a disastrous note by losing four top-order batsmen for a score of mere 49 runs in 13 overs.
Super Kings' spinners did a good job as Muttiah Murlitharan, Suresh Raina and R. Ashwin together dismissed as many as six Punjab batsmen. Sir Lankan spin wizard, Murlitharan was almost unplayable as gave only 8 runs in four overs and picked up crucial wickets of Simon Katich (8) and Luke Pomersbach (26). Raina dismissed dangerous Yuvraj Singh (6) and Bret Lee (6). Kings XI Punjab were required to win the match to enter in the semis but their strategy of scoring slowly at the initial part of the match brought their downfall. The Punjab team was restricted to 92 for eight in 20 overs.
