IPL SRL | CSK vs KXIP Evaluation Chart - DJ Bravo wreaks havoc as CSK demolish Punjab

Match Review

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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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.