New Delhi: A spirited batting performance from veteran Faf du Plessis (59-ball 86), magical spells from Shardul Thakur (3/38), Josh Hazlewood (2/29) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/37) powered Chennai Super Kings to an emphatic 27-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2021 Final on Friday at Dubai International Cricket stadium. Legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai clinched their fourth IPL title by beating Kolkata in the summit clash.
Chasing a mammoth 193-run target for the win, the 91-run opening partnership between Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer made it look like Kolkata will wrap up things pretty quickly but just one over from 'Lord' Shardul Thakur changed the complexion of the match entirely and Chennai were in the driver's seat. From then onwards, Chennai never let Kolkata gain momentum. The required run-rate kept on increasing and the wickets kept on falling and apart from a fiery 13-ball 20 cameo from 'bowler' Shivam Mavi, rest of KKR batsman, including skipper Eoin Morgan, flopped.
Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and decided to bowl first. Faf du Plessis, who was given a life when he was batting on just 2, went on to play one of the best innings of his T20 career. The great South African hammered Kolkata's star-studded bowling line-up all around the Dubai park for fours and some huge sixes to help them post a mammoth 193-run target.
After being invited to bat, openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis stitched a solid 50-plus partnership inside the powerplay to help their team get off to a dream start in the summit clash. During this, Gaikwad surpassed Punjab Kings skipper KL Rahul to become the youngest player to hold Orange Cap (leading run-scorer) in this year's IPL.
Sunil Narine came up with the much-needed wicket for Kolkata by removing Gaikwad for 32 runs in the 9th over, ending CSK openers' solid 61-run partnership.
Faf du Plessis continued to up the ante and scored his fifty in the 11th over. Faf and Robin Uthappa then did not let CSK lose momentum and continued to score easy runs to put up a 63-run stand for the 3rd wicket. However, Narine once again delivered to take out Uthappa and reduce CSK to 124.2 in 14th over.
CSK added 39 runs in the final three overs of their innings to take the score past 190 as Moeen Ali remained not out on 37.
CSK playing XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood
KKR playing XI: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (c), Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy