Dhoni steers CSK home as Pant fifty goes in vain
Lucknow: MS Dhoni is still the game changer for five-time champions Chennai Super Kings. On Monday night, Dhoni showed his might with the keeping gloves as well as the bat to help the side notch up only their second win this IPL, beating Lucknow Super Giants by five wickets and preventing a third win on the trot at home.
Dhoni, with questions swirling around his diminishing batting prowess, mesmerized his fans with an unbeaten 11-ball 26 (4×4, 1×6) as CSK defeated LSG with three balls to spare. LSG posted a modest 166/7 on a slow pitch after Super Kings elected to bowl. CSK reached 168/5 in the final over.
CSK needed 56 runs from the last 30 deliveries, but Dhoni’s unbeaten 57-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Shivam Dubey (43 – 37b, 3×4, 2×6) did the trick for the side.
Such a win was very much required for the side as CSK have had a miserable start to their season, losing five in a row for the first time ever in an IPL season after the opening win against Mumbai Indians. CSK got off to a flying start with the pitch slowing down a bit as debutant Shaik Rasheed and Rachin Ravindra struck 52 runs in 29 balls before falling in quick succession.
Rasheed was caught by Nicholas Pooran at mid-wicket off pacer Avesh Khan playing a slower ball outside off after making a 19-ball 27 (4×4), while Ravindra (37 – 22b, 5×4) missed the line to be trapped in front off Aiden Markram.
Rahul Tripathi (9 – 10b, 1×4) and Ravindra Jadeja (7 – 11b) too didn’t last long, falling to leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi’s perfect deliveries. Tripathi gave a return catch whereas Jadeja was caught brilliantly on the mid-on boundary by Markram. Though CSK had crossed 100 runs in 13 overs, LSG spinners continued to dominate and Digvesh Rathi then dismissed Vijay Shanker (9) to leave CSK struggling at 111/5 in 15 overs.
Barring skipper Rishabh Pant’s fine show with the bat, things didn’t go well for LSG after being sent in to bat. They never got going while playing for the first time on a mixed soil pitch this season. Pant’s first half-century (63 off 49 balls) of the season couldn’t do much for the side as LSG scored their lowest score of this IPL.
After losing dashing opener Markram to the last ball of the first over, their top batter Pooran too went back to the pavilion with the scoreboard reading just 23 in four overs.
Markram (6) tried to whip a delivery that was angled across him to the leg side and got a leading edge that went high in the air over point and the running catch was taken by Rahul Tripathi. Pooran was trapped leg before by Anshul Kamboj for eight runs.
A 50-run third wicket stand between Pant and Mitchell Marsh repaired the innings a bit, Ravindra Jadeja castled the Australian with a quick delivery. After missing the previous match for personal reasons, Marsh struck a 25-ball 30 with the help of two fours and sixes each.
Jadeja also accounted for Delhi boy Ayush Badoni (22 – 1×4, 2×6), who after surviving twice through reviews, was stumped by MS Dhoni in style. Pant, who came to bat within the powerplay, played a fine knock of 63 in 49 balls (4×4, 4×6), including a single-handed effort off Matheesha Pathirana over mid-wicket boundary.
Pant stayed put, despite struggling against left-arm spinner Noor Ahmed, who conceded just 13 runs in his spell, including his consecutive overs that went for two and four runs each. He bowled 10 dot balls in his four overs. This wasn’t all as Jadeja too kept pushing Pant on the backfoot with quick deliveries.
But as the pacers were brought back, Pant found his rhythm and raced to a 42-ball fifty, studded with four fours and three sixes. But just when he looked for a big finish, he fell to Pathirana in the last over. The pacer also snapped the wicket of Shardul Thakur on the last ball. Abdul Samad’s 11-ball 20 late in the LSG innings helped them score 45 runs in the last three overs in Pant’s company.
