The veteran Faf du Plessis played a good hand for Chennai Super Kings, batting for 19.3 overs, and giving the team the much boost against Punjab Kings in their final league stage game in Dubai. Faf’s 76 was crucial for CSK as they went on to post 134/6 after their middle order collapsed.
CSK will be looking to win big and over take Delhi Capitals at the top spot in the points table while Punjab are looking to end their season with a win.
Batting first, Chennai Super Kings looked like they were going to see their openers give them yet another great start. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis started off slower than usual but did not look too worried about it.
In the fourth over however, Punjab struck with Arshdeep Singh having Gaikwad caught by Shahrukh Khan for 12. In his next over, he packed off Moeen Ali for a duck as he was caught behind by KL Rahul.
While Faf tried to keep the scoreboard moving at the other end, CSK’s middle order continued to crumble with Robin Uthappa and Ambati Rayudu adding 2 and 4 to the cause before being dismissed by Chris Jordan, leaving the team in a spot of bother at 42/4.
Dhoni and Faf then added 19 runs with the skipper slapping Ravi Bishnoi for a boundary through the covers before being foxed by a googly and seeing his stumps knocked over. Dhoni scored 12 off 15 deliveries and was dismissed with 8 overs to go with the score reading 61/5.
MS Dhoni is dismissed by Ravi Bishnoi.
Image: BCCI
Ravindra Jadeja then joined Faf and the duo had to rebuild. While the South African was well set and looking to up the ante, Jadeja was more than happy to feed him the strike. With 4 overs to go, CSK were 86/5 and Faf was 10 runs short of his fifty.
Both continued to struggle with their timing and finding the boundaries before they managed to break the shackles in the 18th over. Faf brought up his half century and then finished the Jordan over with a couple of cracking shots to the fence to make it a much needed 12-run over.
Faf then hammered 10 off the first two deliveries in the final over before Mohammed Shami’s bouncer took the top edge and Rahul completed the catch. Faf scored 76 off 55 deliveries as CSK finished off with a competitive 134/6. Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo remained unbeaten on 15 and 4.
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