Faf du Plessis hit a fine half-century up the order while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu provided the late flourish to help Chennai Super Kings post a competitive 160 for three against Kings XI Punjab in an IPL match in Chennai on Saturday.
Opening the batting, Du Plessis made 54 off 38 balls with the help of two fours and four hits over the fence and together with Shane Watson (26) added 56 runs for the first wicket after opting to bat.
But it was some late hitting by Dhoni (37 not out, 23 balls, 4X4s, 1X6) and Rayudu (21 not out, 15 balls, 1X6, 1X4) and their unbeaten 60-run fourth wicket partnership in 30 balls that helped the defending champions reachable a respectable total.
Thanks to Dhoni and Rayudu, CSK scored 52 runs in the last five overs after a rather quiet middle period.
Kings XI skipper Ravichandran Ashwin was the best bowler for the visitors, picking up three wickets for 23 runs from his four overs. He was on a hat-trick in the 14th over after getting half-centurion Du Plessis and Suresh Raina off successive deliveries. CSK got off to a blistering start as Du Plessis, playing his first match of the season and Watson, took the attack to the Kings XI bowlers.
The two raised the team's fifty in the sixth over (33 balls) providing CSK its best start in IPL 2019. While Watson was all muscle, delivering some hefty blows, Du Plessis hit a six with a cheeky scoop off Mohammed Shami.
Taking his spot at the top of the order in place of a misfiring Rayudu, Du Plessis showed intent from the start and hit two sixes, one each off Shami and Andrew Tye to set the tone for CSK's innings.
Watson fell against the run of play, attempting a big shot off Kings XI captain Ashwin to be well caught by Sam Curran in the deep.
Raina (17), who came in at No.3, strung together an useful 44-run partnership with Du Plessis, who kept the scoreboard ticking with a mix of attacking shots and judicious running between the wickets.
The partnership was broken when Du Plessis perished while going for a big hit off Ashwin, caught at long-on by David Miller and then a ball later the off-spinner cleaned up Raina as the batsman went for a sweep.
CSK made three changes to their playing XI from the previous match, bringing in Du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh and Scott Kuggeleijn for Dwayne Bravo, Mohit Sharma and Shardul Thakur.
Kings XI made two changes bringing in Chris Gayle and Andrew Tye for Hardus Viljoen and Mujeeb ur Rahman respectively.
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