Punjab Kings’ falter once again as Jadeja, Simarjeet take Chennai to victory | Ipl News

When rotating strike – a forgotten virtue in T20 cricket these days – was the need of the hour, a gung-ho approach led to their downfall. 62/2 in less than 8 overs, chasing 168, an average total at the venue, quickly became 78/7 in 12.3 overs, landing a deadly blow to their already slim playoff aspirations as they went down to Chennai Super Kings by 28 runs.

Ravindra Jadeja led CSK’s charge with 3/20 🙌

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Punjab Kings were 9/2 after two overs before Prabhsimran and Shashank added 53 in six overs. Some of the shots they played were from the top drawer. Shashank’s full swing of the bat and easy power has been a highlight of the season. They would even have been favourites at that stage to take their dominance over Chennai Super Kings to six successive wins, but lack of maturity and game-awareness got the better of them. Their dismissals, within seven balls of each other, was soon followed by the wickets of Jitesh Sharma, Sam Curran and Ashutosh Sharma to seal the result much before the final rites were performed.

And this against a team that was missing three of their first-choice pace options in Matheesha Pathirana, Deepak Chahar and Mustafizur Rahman.

Plan 🔛 Point ✅

Ravindra Jadeja putting #PBKS in a spin with 2️⃣ more wickets in the same over👌👌

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But then it’s nothing new for Punjab Kings. They may ignite hope among their support base with a couple of wins, but often fall well short of what’s needed to make a real impact. They have been waiting to make the playoffs for a decade and can be rightly called one of the lightweight sides of the league. Every year, they seem to reboot their squad but end up falling well short of competing, on a regular basis, with the big boys.

Rising to the occasion

Sometimes, it just needs opportunity to show what one is capable of. Tushar Deshpande has been at the forefront of Chennai’s seam attack in the absence of the usual suspects and overseas recruits. He was one of the star peformers on their home turf in Chennai and was key to their wins over Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans.

On Sunday, defending a far-from-inassailable total against a team that had beaten them five times in a row, Deshpande set the ball rolling with wickets of Jonny Bairstow and Rilee Rossouw, the two batsmen who were responsible for the chase in Chennai a few days ago to become a dawdle.

And he did that by showcasing his versatility with the new ball. Bairstow sweats on width and often makes room to flay balls through the offside. Deshpande first deceived him with one that went away and induced an outside edge past a wrong-footed Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The next ball made contact with the inside edge and just missed the stumps. The next one decked in sharply, and crashed into off-stump via the pads of the tentative Englishman.

Ideal start for @ChennaiIPL 👏

Tushar Deshpande flying high with dual dismissals in his very first over 💪

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Rossouw was caught on the crease by the excellent length and was taken aback by one that moved just enough to shatter the furniture.

After losing their last two games and being restricted to a middling total, CSK needed some early impetus and Deshpande provided just that.

After the spinners did their usual CSK thing, there was time for Impact Sub Simarjeet Singh to make an impact. The 26-year-old from Delhi gave Ashutosh the hurry-up, and generated enough pace and bounce to get an edge off a horizontal-bat shorty from Jitesh for a catch behind the wicket.

Harshal Patel couldn’t make proper connection with a hard-length ball and spooned an easy catch to square-leg.

CSK have some key personnel missing from their bowling attack, but Simarjeet made a case for being given further chances as the league campaign reaches its end.

Spin-tormenter tormented

Shivam Dube has been selected in the Indian T20 World Cup squad with a mandate to take down spinners in the middle overs. That pick was based on the left-hander’s explosive hitting in the first half of the IPL season. But since the team was announced, Dube has had two ducks to his name, falling to leg-spinner Rahul Chahar both times. In Chennai, he went for a big swipe and was caught plumb in front. In Dharamsala on Sunday, he was done in by a googly as he tried to flay one through the offside, only to manage an edge to the wicketkeeper.

Ruturaj Gaikwad ✅
Shivam Dube ✅

Rahul Chahar marks his entry to the crease in style 😎

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It was Chahar’s spell that brought the Punjab Kings back into the game after the Powerplay had yielded 60 runs for the loss of Ajinkya Rahane’s wicket. Ruturaj Gaikwad was looking solid before he edged one behind off the leg-spinner, while Daryl Mitchell was sent at No.3 and was injecting some momentum into the innings.

Chahar put a leash around the CSK batsman and had figures of 3/10 off three overs before his final one went for 13 runs. Harshal Patel then stepped up with three wickets of his own, including the first-ball dismissal of Dhoni to restrict CSK, but Punjab Kings proved to be woeful with the bat.

Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 167/9 in 20 overs (Jadeja 43; Rahul Chahar 3/23, Harshal Patel 3/24) beat Punjab Kings 139/9 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 30; Jadeja 3/20, Simarjeet Singh 2/16) by 28 runs.