Lungi Ngidi - CSK

Both Chennai Super Kings and their South African speedster looked like the winner today. Coming to IPL after two years and fighting with a largely aged squad, CSK have done brilliantly to reach the playoffs in one of the most competitive IPL seasons. However, losing the South African bowler early in the campaign was a huge blow after he had to return home following the demise of his father. He returned late into the season with the team management finding it difficult to get him into the starting eleven. However, the youngsters announced his arrival in IPL and how! On a game, where KXIP had to score huge and try to restrict CSK to as little as possible to qualify, Ngidi destroyed Punjab’s batting. Boasting of the most dangerous opening duo in IPL, KXIP were down to 14/2 by the third over. He went to scalp wickets of Ravichandran Ashwin and Andrew Tye at the end finishing the first innings with figures of 4/10.

If one had asked a Rajasthan fan earlier this week after their game against Kolkata Knight Riders, when they not only lost the game but also Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes who were called back in England, they would have clearly denied any sort of qualification chances for the playoffs. However, such has been the uncertainty of IPL that after they managed to topple Royal Challengers Bangalore, contrary to the popular belief, with a below par squad they still had to rely on the results of Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab to assure their playoffs spot. And the Gods have favoured them brilliantly with both the star-studded sides losing Delhi Daredevils and CSK respectively, setting a virtual quarter-final between KKR and RR now. 

The way Kings XI Punjab started the second innings, KKR fans would surely have had their hopes up. CSK were down to 27/3 with Ambati Rayudu, Faf du Plessis, and Sam Billings all returning to the pavilion and the Pune pitch behaving like a sworn enemy for the hosts. The situation was so grave that skipper MS Dhoni decided to send Harbhajan Singh and Deepak Chahar ahead of him to bat. However, some horrendous miss by Punjab fielders saw Chennai batsmen going into safety. While KXIP had to limit CSK within 100 runs to take the fourth spot on the table, KKR needed CSK to get all-out with 76 runs to go to the second place. However, CSK’s experienced lot ensured that they go over the line just in time.