Winning the toss and opting to bowl first, Dhoni’s men were instantly made to regret their decision, with the Notts, led by an Alex Hales onslaught, racing off to 28/0 within the first two overs, threatening to deflate the CSK bowlers right from the word go. However, in one of the most anti-climatic twists in the SRL history, the Notts batsmen scored just 69 runs in the 13 overs that followed, before somehow scampering their way to 156, thanks to some meaty blows from the bat of Steven Mullaney. 

157 is the kind of target the CSK batsmen could chase if you wake them up in the middle of the night and from the very first ball, it looked like they exactly knew what to do. An early du Plessis cameo gave the Men in Yellow the cushion they needed and despite losing both the openers inside the powerplay, handy contributions from both Raina and Rayudu meant that they were striking within striking distance of the target, with over 18 balls to go. As is the case always, skipper MS Dhoni gave the finishing touches with a fine 18-ball 22 to extend the Yellow Army’s unbeaten run in the competition. 

In every sense, this was one of the weirder contests witnessed in SRL history and remarkably, the game turned as early as the 16th ball of the match. After bulldozing their way to 32/0 off just 2.3 overs, things turned upside down for the Notts after Joe Clarke’s dismissal. Post the opener’s exit, they incredibly scored just 10 more runs in the powerplay, before allowing the CSK spinners to dictate terms in the middle overs. And well, once they handed over the advantage to CSK, there was no coming back into the contest for the English franchise.

It’s been four years since Ben Duckett last played Test cricket for England, but it was a bit flabbergasting to see the southpaw prove his red-ball credentials today, in a T20 contest. His 34-ball 21 completely killed off the momentum gathered by Hales and by the time he got out, he’d put CSK in an unassailable position. Won’t be an understatement to say Duckett was CSK’s man of the match today.

Notts’s powerplay today was literally a passage of two halves - 33/1 off the first 3 overs and 10/1 off the last three. How can a team that has scored 33 runs in the first three overs end up with just 43 at the end of the sixth over? Well, that’s a question only Notts can answer. 10 of their last 18 balls in the powerplay were dots and the latter part of the first six overs felt like they temporarily switched to first-class cricket. 

Perhaps, it won’t be an understatement to call the middle-overs display by Notts today as the most boring - if not the worst - display of batting we’ve seen in SRL history. Four boundaries were all they managed to hit in the entirety of the middle overs and of course, their innings was ‘dominated’ by Duckett who batted with a strike rate of 61.76. Jadeja’s impeccable control was too much for the Notts batsmen, who let the left-armer get away with figures of 3-0-17-2. It was a bizarre 9-over period with absolutely no intent whatsoever.

At 97/5 at the end of the 15th over, CSK would have hoped to restrict Notts under 140, but they remarkably ended up letting the English side get to a competitive score of 156. The wrecker-in-chief for the East Midlands side was Mullaney, who struck a 17-ball 31 to inject life into Nottinghamshire. Deepak Chahar would definitely be livid with his performance, though, as he conceded 22 runs off the penultimate over. A lacklustre display at the death from the CSK bowlers.

One-sided games where half the match is entertaining are at least bearable, but this was an atrocious contest from a neutral perspective as it provided no entertainment whatsoever, barring the initial cameo from Alex Hales. If you’re someone who ended up missing this game, consider yourself lucky.