IPL SRL | CSK vs KXIP Evaluation Chart - DJ Bravo wreaks havoc as CSK demolish Punjab
A three wicket-haul from DJ Bravo inside the first 10 overs shattered Kings XI Punjab as the KL Rahul-led side, who rode on a 48 from Mayank Agarwal, were restricted to just 101/8 in their quota of overs. It was a no-contest in the chase as CSK, led by Watson, dusted the target off in 14 overs.
Match Review
After winning the toss and opting to bowl, CSK hit an unintentional jackpot on just the seventh ball - as Chris Gayle ran himself out - and they were further helped by KL Rahul, who scored just 9 runs off the 15 balls he faced. At 34/2 at the end of the powerplay, things still looked ‘okay’ for the Kings but a triple-strike from Dwayne Bravo soon left them gasping desperately for breath. From thereon, an underwhelming KXIP response was expected, but the side flabbergastingly scored just 58 runs off the last 12 overs to finish on 101/8 at the end of their innings; Agarwal, who scored 48, was the only shining light for KXIP.
Early wickets - and plenty of them - were the need of the hour for KXIP, defending 102, but what they instead got was a thrashing from the bat of Shane Watson. The Aussie opener got CSK off the blocks in no time and despite not getting any support from the other end, he single-handedly drove his side towards the paltry target. Shami then removed both Faf and Raina in the same over, but that ended up playing into the hands of CSK as Watson ended up getting able support from pocket dynamite Ambati Rayudu. The two, after sharing a 57-run stand, departed, but it was too little too late for KXIP and Dhoni and Jadhav steered the Men in Yellow home.
You can check out the match tracker and the live scorecard here
Turning Point
34/2 is by no means a ‘terrible’ start to the innings, but Punjab’s innings went from ‘okay’ to ‘hopeless’ within the span of two overs, thanks to Dwayne Bravo. The Kings relied on their big hitters - Maxwell and Pooran - to drag them out of the sluggish start but Bravo’s triple strike - which also included Sarfaraz’s wicket - absolutely crushed KL Rahul’s side. It was the undoubted turning point of the game.
Highs and Lows
For 15 overs, there were no ‘highs’ in the game but then it came in CSK’s 6th over from the most unlikely customer - Ambati Rayudu. A double strike from Shami ought to have slowed CSK down, but Rayudu, instead, surprised one and all by smacking Mujeeb for back-to-back sixes. It was at this moment that KXIP knew that they were simply not going to escape a battering.
KL Rahul, through his knock, decided to give Dhoni a taste of his own medicine, but in the process of doing so, he took things too far. Sure, a dot ball here and a dot ball there would have been acceptable, but the right-hander’s 15-ball stay at the middle featured ELEVEN dots. It was a torturous stay at the middle which served no purpose whatsoever to the Punjab side.
Rating Charts
Powerplay exploitation: Punjab 4/10 and CSK 8/10
KXIP, especially in the powerplay, are the kind of side which either glue you to the TV screen or make you shut it down within a couple of overs; there is no inbetween. Unfortunately, today they exhibited their boring avatar. After Gayle perished for just 4, on just the 7th ball, Rahul played a painfully slow knock - a 15-ball 9 - to irk the fans. Agarwal then tried to salvage the run rate by striking a couple of boundaries, but that counted for little as KXIP finished the powerplay on 34/2.
Two balls all it took for CSK and Watson to outdo Punjab’s intent in the powerplay - a boundary off Mujeeb to let their intentions known to KXIP. A flurry of boundaries from the bat of both Watson and du Plessis then saw CSK hurry their way towards 27/0 in no time, but then KXIP got their first real ‘moment’ of the game thanks to a double strike from Shami. That turned out to be a mere consolation, though, as Rayudu smacked two sixes to help CSK end the powerplay on a high note, on 45/2.
Middle-overs manoeuvring: Punjab 1/10 and CSK 8.5/10
Looking at KXIP’s paltry score, it was the spinners who were licking their lips, thinking of how much they could choke Kings’ middle-order, but as it turned out, it was Dwayne Bravo who ravaged KL Rahul’s men. In a remarkable two-over burst, Bravo broke the back of Punjab - dismissing all three of Maxwell, Pooran and Sarfaraz - and left them to reel at 43/5 in the 9th over. The following 41 balls in the phase, post Sarfaraz’s dismissal, astonishingly yielded just 21 runs. Such was CSK’s dominance that at the end of the 15th over, every single bowler of their boasted an economy of 4 and under. THIRTY RUNS was all KXIP managed in the middle. Oh, you thought their powerplay display was appalling? Hah.
It’s not something that happens often but such was the one-sided nature of this encounter that CSK had sealed the game as early as the seventh over; 57 was all they needed in the remaining 14 overs. And in a weird way, the middle-overs followed a similar pattern to that of their powerplay - a flurry of runs towards the start and then two quick wickets towards the end. Both Watson and Rayudu started off in fine fashion, dismantling KXIP spinners Gowtham and Bishnoi, but the duo perished with the finishing line within touching distance. That mattered for little as Dhoni and Jadhav provided the finishing touches to take CSK home - with 6 overs to spare.
Death bowling:- CSK 9/10 and KXIP na/10
Assigned the impossible task of salvaging KXIP’s hopeless innings were Mayank Agarwal and K Gowtham and while the CSK bowlers got the better of the latter in the first ball of the phase, the former made them pay - to an extent. Mayank proactively took on both Chahar and Thakur for four overs and got himself close to a well-made fifty, before falling prey to the Rajasthan lad in the 19th over. Thakur then finished off proceedings in style, conceding just four runs off his last over as KXIP crawled to a miserable 101/8 at the end of their innings; 37 was all CSK conceded in the last 5.
Oh well, there’s no need to bother about the death overs; CSK finished proceedings off in just 14 overs.
Match Frenzy O Meter - Terrible
Perhaps it might have been enjoyable from a CSK fan's perspective, but from a neutral standpoint, the game was an abomination. The one-sided nature of the contest, right from ball one, was a mood-killer of the highest order.