Young paceman Lungi Ngidi took four wickets for just 10 runs but Karun Nair hit a timely half-century to help Kings XI Punjab recover from a top-order collapse and post 153 against Chennai Super Kings in the final group stage match of IPL 2018.
When Punjab batsmen needed to fire in unison, only Nair showed stomach for fight with his 26-ball knock, which was laced with three fours and five sixes.
It was South African paceman Ngidi (4/10) who triggered a top-order collapse as he swung the ball both ways to confound the Punjab batsmen. He first had dangerous Chris Gayle (0) caught behind and then bowled the other opener KL Rahul with a peach of delivery that swung in and sent the stump kart-wheeling.
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While it was Ngidi who aced with the ball, his skipper MS Dhoni too achieved two unique feats during the match against Kings XI Punjab.
First he broke Kumar Sangakkara’s record of 142 catches to become the wicket-keeper with the most catches in T20 cricket. Later in the match, Dhoni became the most succesful wicket-keeper in T20 history, leaving behind Kamran Akmal’s record of 215 dismissals.
The others in the elite list include Kumar Sangakkara, Dinesh Karthik and Denesh Ramdin.
Not just with the gloves, MS Dhoni also reached a personal landmark when he batted against Kings XI Punjab. During his innings of 16, he became only the seventh cricketer to score 4000 runs in IPL history.
With Virat Kohli (4,948) and Suresh Raina (4,931) competing for the top two slots among run-getters in the league’s history; Rohit Sharma (4,493), Gautam Gambhir (4,217), Robin Uthappa (4,124) and David Warner (4,014) come ahead of Dhoni. He now has 4,007 IPL runs.
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