Credit: X
Punjab Kings continued their winning run in IPL 2024 after beating the Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets. With this result, Punjab continued winning form against Chennai as this was their fifth straight victory over the five-time champions. This victory also took PBKS to the seventh spot on the table while CSK remain four with five wins and five losses.
After winning the toss, Punjab opted to bowl first and put forth a brilliant effort as they restricted CSK to 162. Right out of the gate, Chennai struggled to score runs and then after the powerplay wickets started to tumble. PBKS spinners - Rahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar were crucial as they combined to pick up four wickets.
However, Chennai got a strong finish thanks to captain Ruturaj Gaikwad's 48-ball 62 with five fours and two sixes and MS Dhoni's 14 in 11 balls. Then with the bat, Punjab also had a streaky start with Prabhsimran Singh getting out cheaply. But Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh and captain Sam Curran ensured PBKS had no further hiccups and got the job done in 17.5 overs.
Talking about this loss, CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad said, " Probably 50-60 runs short, the pitch wasn't great when we batted, it got better later on. With the impact rule as well, we were well short. I've practiced the tosses (during the practice sessions), it's not going well in the match, not sure what to do. To be truthful, I'm under pressure when I go to the middle (for the toss). We were also surprised that we won by a big margin in the last match considering the conditions (win by 78 runs against SRH)."
"I think the last two games, the conditions and pitch was better, it allowed us to fight hard and get to 200+, today, it wasn't good enough to get to even 180. It's a real problem (on the player missing due to injuries and Chahal walking away in the first over), there are phases where you want wickets, but you have only two bowlers, the dew took the spinners out of the equation. It was tough, but there're four games left and we will try and come back to winning ways."
