DUBAI: M S Dhoni drove Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the last over blasting Curran for 12 runs to enter the IPL 2021 finals. Dhoni’s super cameo of 18 runs off 6 balls (with 3 boundaries and 1 six) proves he is one of the best finishers of the game.
Delhi Capitals (DC) reached a competitive score of 172 for 5 wickets with contributions from Captain Rishab Pant (51 not out), Prithvi Shaw (60 runs) and quickfire cameo from Hetmyer (37 off 24 balls). Hazlewood continued his lethal bowling for CSK to get 2 important wickets of Shikar Dhawan and S.Iyer for 29 runs.
CSK’s opening heroic partnership was not to be today with Faf du Plessis bowled out for just one run by DC’s prime bowler Anrich Nortje. A 110-run partnership between Gaikwad and Uthappa stabilized the CSK innings. Uthappa scored 63 runs off 44 balls and looked set for a bigger score before Tom Curran had him caught by Iyer. Tom Curran caused chaos in CSK innings with another wicket Thakur for no score. Raydu was also run out by Iyer for just one run and CSK was tottering at 119 for 4 wickets in 15 overs. Moeen Ali and Gaikwad (70 runs off 50 balls) put together a match saving partnership of 30 runs. However, with 24 runs needed in 2 overs, Gaikwad was caught off the bowling of Ayesh Khan.
CSK captain Dhoni walked in to join Moeen Ali and started his run gathering with a six. CSK needing 13 runs in the last over lost Moeen Ali (16 runs off 12 balls) in the first ball of a Tom Curran over. Dhoni faced the rest of Curran over and guided CSK to reach the target of 173 runs with 2 balls to spare to win by 4 wickets. Curran got 3 wickets for 29 runs but ends up on the losing end.
CSK opener Ruturaj Gaikwad was named ‘Man of the Match’.
The ‘eliminator’ match between RCB and KKR will be held on Monday Oct .11(RZ)
