It has been a great turnaround for Chennai pacer Deepak Chahar in the span of two matches. From being scolded by the skipper to leading his side to victory, Chahar’s fortune has done a 360 degree turn.
It was Chahar’s splendid first spell on the slow wicket at the Chepauk, which started the carnage for the Knight Riders. Eventually, Chennai Super Kings notched up a comfortable seven-wicket win against Kolkata Knight Riders.
In the three overs at the start of the Kolkata innings, Chahar picked up a wicket in every over to reduce Kolkata to 24/4 in 4.4 overs. His victims included Chris Lynn, Nitish Rana and Robin Uthappa. Chahar finished with 3/20 in his four overs to be adjudged Man of the Match.
From six matches, Chahar now has eight wickets at an economy of 5.95. In fact, after Tuesday’s match Chahar holds the record for bowling the maximum number of dot balls which stands at 73.
In his previous game against Kings XI Punjab on Saturday, Chahar unfortunately didn’t have a great outing and had to face Dhoni’s wrath.
With 39 needed of 12 balls for Kings XI Punjab to win, skipper MS Dhoni handed over the ball to Chahar to bowl the 19th over of the innings. Chahar bowled two back-to-back no balls in the over due to which Dhoni was miffed with him.
His first no ball free-hit was a four and the next yielded two runs. He ended up giving 13 runs in the over.
After the game, he spoke to the media and spoke about why MS Dhoni was angry on him and also spoke about how he congratulated Chahar after Chennai’s win at the end of the match in the dressing room.
On Tuesday, it was a day of redemption for Chahar as he decimated the famous Kolkata top-order.
He first trapped Chris Lynn (0) in plumb in front of the wicket. In his second over he account for the wicket of Rana (0) who hit a rising delivery straight to Ambati Rayudu at mid wicket. The Rajasthan pacer then got the back of Robin Uthappa (11) who was guilty of trying to play one shot too many, and holing out to Jadhav at deep square leg. Uthappa had already hit Chahar for two boundaries in the over.
Chahar was ably supported by Harbhajan Singh (2/15) and Imran Tahir (2/21) as the duo continued their rich for with the ball.
With this win, Chennai replace Kolkata at the top of the eight-team points table with 10 points from six matches. Kolkata, meanwhile, dropped down to second spot, having eight points from six outings.
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