Veteran players Shane Watson (83 runs off 53 balls) and Faf du Plessis (87 runs off 53 balls) roared back to form with breezy knocks and stitched a 181-run opening stand to power Chennai Super Kings to a comfortable ten-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab in their IPL match at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis turned out to be the lone wolves for CSK tonight. This was CSK's second 10 wicket in IPL and interestingly their first one was also against Punjab.
Chasing 179 runs to win, senior batters Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis came out to open the innings. Sheldon Cottrell started the attack with the new white-ball. Watson started off with a couple of back-to-back boundaries off Cottrell to score nine runs off the very first over.
KXIP's top bowler Mohammad Shami started the over really well as he almost got the outside edge of in-form Watson,courtesy an absolute peach delivery. However, Shami bowled a too wide ball to give free five runs to under pressure CSK.
CSK managed to score 25 runs off the first three overs as both CSK openers looked buys in the middle; with the help of aggressive and soft strokes, the veteran duo gave their squad a solid start in the chase. Meanwhile, KXIP introduced spin early by bringing in Harpreet Brar in the fourth over.
The move to bring in Brar early almost proved to be the master-stroke for KXIP as Plessis almost got LBW out in his over but the ball was pitched outside the off-stump and he got lucky. CSK were off to a steady start in their chase, with 41/0 from the first 5 overs.
The solid foundation by the CSK got much stronger as they notched up a fifty run partnership to move team's total past 50. Three consecutive boundaries from Faf du Plessis off Chris Jordan's first over (19 runs) assured CSK end the powerplay on a high (60/0 from 6 overs) - their highest powerplay score of the season.
After a good 7th over from Bishnoi (6 runs from it), KL Rahul now looked desperate to get some more quite overs to put some pressure on CSK openers.
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The duo continued to show their class and posted a century stand to bring 100 up for Chennai in the 10th over, needing 78 more runs off the last 10 overs with all wickets in hand.
CSK were in complete control and on top of the chase in the entire match and in the end easily chased the 179-run total in 17.4 overs to win their second game in the IPL 2020 after three consecutive defeats.
Earlier in the game, Kings XI Punjab won the toss and decided to bat first. Punjab captain KL Rahul played a remarkable 63-run knock as he turned on the brilliance in Dubai by powering Punjab to 178/4 against Chennai Super Kings.
Both KXIP openers, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal provided a super solid start to their team with a 61-run stand. Nichola Pooran's fiery cameo (33 runs in 17 balls) doubled the pressure on CSK batters.
KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal came out in the middle to open the innings for their squad. Both KXIP openers looked in impeccable touch and provided a steady start to their team.