IPL 2018, KXIP vs CSK: Three masterstrokes from the game

The 12th match of the IPL saw Dhoni’s CSK and Ashwin’s Punjab battle it out with each other. The first two matches of CSK was full of thrills as they beat both Mumbai and KKR from a losing position.

On the other hand, Punjab brutally thrashed Daredevils and almost defended a mediocre target against RCB at the Chinnaswamy.

CSK yet again won the toss and chose to bowl. Gayle’s whirlwind knock and useful contributions from Rahul and Nair took Punjab to 197.

Chasing 198 CSK got off to a good start but some world class spin bowling by Mujeeb Ur Rahman and R Ashwin ensured that the asking rate was always above 10. Dhoni almost took CSK home from an impossible position, but Mohit Sharma bowled a superb 20th over to ensure Punjab’s victory.

Here are three masterstrokes from this cracker of a contest.

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#1 Picking Gayle over Miller

Chris Gayle is regarded by many as the pioneer of T20 batsmanship is at the twilight of his career. No one went for him at the auction and it was not that big a surprise as he was firmly out of touch and his running was a major weakness in this ever-evolving era of cricket.

Many doubted the decision of picking him over Miller but Gayle proved everyone wrong by picking apart the CSK bowlers. It was vintage gayle waiting for the ball to land in his arc and dismissing it with disdain. Instead of going after the good deliveries he patiently waited for the bad ball and punished it.

The highlight was the sixth over bowled by Deepak Chahar as he deposited the 2nd ball into the second-tier of the stands with an almighty swing.

The next delivery, he neatly bisected fine leg and square leg with a well-controlled pull shot. And then again punched the next delivery for four. Yet another storm from the boss came to an end after Watson got the better of him with a short ball.

#2 Giving Tahir three consecutive overs

Chris Gayle was teeing off and the pressure was firmly on the CSK bowlers. Tahir came to bowl in the 7th over, but was caught in the midst of a storm and went for 17 runs. He came back for the 12th over but Yuvraj Singh lofted him beautifully into the stands and he conceded 7 in that over without any delivery beating the batsman or troubling them.

When every other captain would have taken Tahir out of the attack, Dhoni persisted with Tahir. The move paid off big time as Tahir got the huge wickets of Agarwal and Finch back to back.

The first ball of the 14th over, Tahir bowled a beautiful flighted leg break. Agarwal went for the slog and miscued it. The next ball he removed the dangerous Finch with a tempting googly. This over completely derailed Punjab’s innings and they ended up with only 197, 20 less than the expected total.

#3 Ashwin’s review to dismiss Sam Billings

Chasing 198, CSK got off to a decent start with 53/2 at the end of 6 overs. Then, Ashwin trapped Billings in front of the stumps with a superb quicker delivery. But the Umpire was unfazed and even the Keeper didn’t appeal vigorously.

But, Ashwin was pretty sure and Punjab badly needed Sam’s wicket as he had shown his immense potential on CSKs encounter with KKR. Ashwin decided to review and this proved to be a masterstroke as Hawkeye clearly showed the ball crashing into the off stump.

This moment defined the match as CSK lost their momentum in the middle overs and slumped to a 4 run defeat at the end.