Chepauk is Chennai’s Fort
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) beat Gujarat Titans (GT) by 63 runs in yesterday’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Sent into bat after losing the toss, CSK put up 206/6 on the board as Shivam Dube hammered 51 off 23 and Rachin Ravindra 46 off 20. In the chase, GT were held to 143/8 as Chennai’s bowlers put up a clinical effort. It was all round bowling performance from all the CSK bowlers. They were very disciplined with their line and length. No batsman was able to score big innings. Shivam Dube was the star of the match so he was selected as player of the match. With this win CSK became no 1 in the IPL points table.
CSK bowlers outplayed GT batters
Chasing 207, Gujarat Titans lost their skipper Shubman Gill for 8. He was trapped lbw by Deepak Chahar as he tried to swipe one across the line and completely missed the ball, which seemed to keep marginally low. Chahar dismissed Wriddhiman Saha (21 off 17) as well, who dragged a pull to deep square leg. Vijay Shankar (12) fell to a brilliant diving catch by MS Dhoni behind the stumps as he edged a full ball outside off stump from Daryl Mitchell.
The dismissal left GT in big trouble at 55/3 in the eighth over. CSK’s brilliant fielding effort continued as Ajinkya Rahane took a superb diving catch, running in from cow corner, to dismiss David Miller (21) off Tushar Deshpande’s bowling. Sai Sudharsan (37) was the next to go, caught at long on off Matheesha Pathirana. With his dismissal, Gujarat Titans’ slim hopes of making a fightback in the match ended.
Ravindra , Gaikwad and Dube played good innings
Chennai got off to a solid start with the bat as their openers added 62 in 5.2 overs. Ravindra found rhythm by slamming Umesh Yadav for a six and a four in the second over. He kept peppering the boundaries at regular intervals until being smartly stumped off Rashid Khan’s bowling. Rahane struggled to get going and was dismissed for a run-a-ball 12, stumped off Sai Kishore as he unsuccessfully tried to break the shackles. Dube, however came in and clubbed the left-arm spinner for consecutive sixes.
At the other end, Skipper Gaikwad’s (46 off 30) superb knock ended as he caught behind while attempting a pull off Spencer Johnson. Dube, though, kept striking the big hits and raced past 50 in 22 balls. The CSK left-hander fell immediately after crossing his fifty, miscuing a googly off Rashid. Sameer Rizvi (14 off 6), however, came in and hammered the leggie for a first-ball six over deep backward square leg. Another maximum followed off the last ball of the penultimate over, this time over long-off. Sameer impressed everyone with his short little cameo.
Kevin Varchand