Match Review

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Jerome Taylor’s timely wicket of the southpaw Suresh Raina was enough to cause a feeling of disturbance in Chennai’s rather den-like-home record. Raina has by now learnt and put the entire pitch’s reading in his palms, where he knows how to change phases when the game requires it. Moreso, he got himself off to a steady start, scoring a 11-ball 16 before falling to the lanky pacer. 

Highs and Lows

Thala Dhoni’s form is a concern, not sure if it a blessing in disguise for the Indian franchise, though. However and whichever way it is, his batting display in the encounter was almost reminiscent of his knock against Mumbai Indians in the opening game of the 2018 IPL. He fell right to his weakness in recent times - against spinners - after having scored just three runs off five deliveries that he faced during his stay at the crease. If Dhoni had given Jadeja and co company towards the end, CSK might have pulled off the heist but as it stood, they fell short by a minuscule. 

Rating Charts

Two stars, two partnerships at the top, starkly different on the night. On one side, there was Jamaica’s opening partnership of Chris Gayle and Glenn Philipps, who started the powerplay slowly before capitalising it towards the death overs. In particular, it was an impressive strategy, despite the slow-scoring rate from the CPL side, given that the home side are incredibly strong at home. 

In the conditions they know at the back of their hand, the Men in Yellow failed and failed miserably, despite scoring more runs than the Jamaican side. It all depended on the way they kick-started the innings, with the first ball dismissal of the Australian opener, Shane Watson. Just when the partnership was seemingly blooming between Raina and Faf, it fell short before Jamaica pulled the trigger on the home side, taking three wickets in the powerplay. 

Andre Russell’s men stopped CSK from performing their black-magic during the middle overs of the innings. The home side are particularly too strong in the middle-overs, where their spinners flock in pairs to put the opposition’s innings to a sudden halt. However, this time around, they failed and failed in terrible fashion. The Men in Yellow conceded 86 runs throughout the middle phase, leaving the CPL side to hunt in loose. 

Every CSK segment on this rating chart is contrasting to the fortunes of Andre Russell’s side. Right where Jamaica took the upper hand over its opposition, Chennai failed. Apart from the rare contribution from Kedar Jadhav and Ravindra Jadeja, the other batsmen were clueless against the beautiful spell from the Jamaican bowlers. In the end, they could only add 58 more runs to their total from the middle-over segment. 

For the first time in this rating chart, everything has flipped in Chennai’s favour, thanks to their bowlers during the end part of the visitors’ innings. Not only did they just concede 35 runs but also picked up four crucial wickets, which left the CPL side in a spot of bother after their prior brilliance in the innings. Shardul Thakur struck twice while Chahar and Imran Tahir had to settle with just a wicket for themselves. 

Jamaica nearly conceded the game to the home side, giving away FIFTY-FOUR RUNS in the endgame. If Shardul Thakur had connected well just like his counter-part, Deepak Chahar, CSK would have walked out as victors in the unlikeliest of fashion. That talks a lot about the bowling performance from the CPL side. With just the wickets of Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo, Russell’s men must do better in the next game during the same phase. 

In no way was this game one-sided, thanks to the late cameo by the Rajasthan pacer Deepak Chahar, who nearly won the game for CSK. Apart from that, there was plenty of runs and plenty of wickets, with the game going head-on right till the last delivery; a nail-biter, indeed.