Uthappa and Moeen played their parts with the bat too, before Shardul Thakur and Co cut through KKR’s middle
Chennai Super Kings 192 for 3 (du Plessis 86, Moeen 37*, Narin 2-26) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 165 for 9 (Gill 51, Iyer 50, Thakur 3-38, Hazlewood 2-29) by 27 runs
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WATCH – Jadeja picks up two in one over to dash KKR’s chances
du Plessis shows up again for CSK
The previous two times – that is, 2018 and 2019 – when CSK reached the IPL playoffs, du Plessis managed to get a half-century in one of those big games. He did it again in IPL 2021, this time with a free-flowing 86 in the biggest game of the lot.
But KKR managed to keep him in check towards the end of the powerplay, and his 32 off 27 when he fell to Sunil Narine in the ninth over, would look unflattering by the end.
Then, du Plessis and Robin Uthappa – who got 63 in CSK’s last game – took the attack on through the middle overs. Once again, it was through Shakib that the shackles broke, his third over fetching a six each for du Plessis and Uthappa. That 63-run partnership off 5.2 overs involved a six in every over but one, not counting the over in which the pair was united. du Plessis also tucked into Lockie Ferguson’s back-of-a-length deliveries for picturesque boundaries, the highlight a back-foot punch over extra cover.
A tiring du Plessis managed only 34 off his last 24 balls, but the sixes never would stop for CSK. Moeen Ali, back at No. 4 after a short-lived Shardul Thakur experiment in their last match, hit three of them. By the end of the innings, it was 10 sixes, three consecutive half-century stands and a score of 192 after being put in to bat in a final. The only thing CSK would have worried about at that stage was how good the pitch still was, and the prospect of dew.
KKR’s off day in the field
Kolkata Knight Riders’ path to the final after qualifying had one thing in common – they bowled first, strangled two teams, and chased when batting got easier. The first part of that went alright in the final, Morgan won the toss and elected to bowl. But the parallel ended there. Shakib was able to be economical bowling early in the innings in Sharjah, but was taken down by Gaikwad in the powerplay. Dinesh Karthik missed a stumping of du Plessis early on and their go-to fast bowler, Ferguson, went for 56, his most expensive IPL spell. Morgan himself misfielded twice in what became KKR’s worst bowling innings of the UAE leg.
Dhoni drops Iyer, Gill saved by wire
Venkatesh Iyer was reprieved off the second ball of his innings, MS Dhoni putting down a routine catch going reverse-cup to his left after Josh Hazlewood had induced an edge. Iyer went on to make his fourth fifty of the season, managing especially to pick the gaps in an off-side ring that at one point had six fielders. He also showed off what has become a trademark swing to the leg side the ball immediately after he was dropped. Dhoni was duly forced into bowling Dwayne Bravo over Ravindra Jadeja after a wicketless powerplay of 55 runs. When Dhoni had no choice but to bring on Jadeja, Iyer managed two sixes over the leg side to hit him back out of the attack.
The other fifty, Shubman Gill’s, might not have happened if Ambati Rayudu’s catch running in from deep midwicket had stood. It didn’t stand because the miscued slog touched the spidercam wire on its way down, rendering the ball dead immediately. Dhoni, at that point, was shaking his head in frustration. KKR’s opening stand put up 91 in 10.3 overs.
Full report to follow
Varun Shetty is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
