Chennai Super Kings won their fourth Indian Premier League title on Friday when the MS Dhoni-led side defeated Kolkata Knight Riders in the final of the 2021 season by 27 runs. CSK registered a strong 27-run win over Eoin Morgan’s men, outclassing Knight Riders in all departments to lift the trophy.
Gaekwad and du Plessis have rock-solid at the top this season and the pair have also come in the title clash. He hit boundaries regularly and rotated the strike skillfully to help Chennai post 50/1 in the powerplay. Ruturaj continued his fine form to remove the bad balls. Du Plessis at the other end helped by scoring 27 runs at a slow pace at the end of the sixth over.
The pair has become the third opening pair from Chennai to share a 50-run partnership in the IPL final. Hussey and Vijay had added 50 runs for the first wicket in the finals of 2011 and 2012.
Robin Uthappa, who made his Chennai Super Kings debut in the 13th game of the season this year, turned in style in the final. Initially, Uthappa kept himself at number three in place of injured Suresh Raina with brilliant innings in limited chances. The right-handed batsman played a key role for the team in the Qualifier 1 game against Delhi Capitals, sharing a 110-run partnership with Ruturaj Gaikwad, who scored 63 runs.
The batsman continued his good form in the final, moving east with a quick knock of 31 runs in just 15 balls. Uthappa hit three KKR spinners Shakib Al Hasan, Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine for sixes. His innings helped CSK cross the 100-run mark in the 12th over of the innings. Before his arrival, CSK was scoring at 7.8 RPO; When he was dismissed in the 14th over, his run rate was 9.32.
Lockie Ferguson ended a frightening match against CSK as he conceded 56 runs in four overs without conceding a wicket. The CSK batsmen targeted the Kiwi’s pace as he hit seven fours and two sixes in his spell.
Faf du Plessis was particularly impressive against Ferguson as he smashed 30 runs in the boundary against New Zealand
A dropped catch and Spiderman gave life to the Kolkata opening pair but Shardul shed the first blood in the 11th over. Venkatesh Iyer tried to cut it at extra cover but picked Ravindra Jadeja, who is among the safest pair of cricketers. Nitish Rana (0) also made a comeback in no time, destroying Kolkata’s batting.
Sunil Narine and Shubman Gill also made a comeback as Kolkata, in no time, went from 91/0 to 108/4. The departure of former captain Dinesh Karthik was perhaps the final nail in the coffin, leaving the two-time champions behind at 119/5.
The bowling unit of Chennai Super Kings featured together in the IPL finals in the form of Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja (2/37), Deepak Chahar (1/32) and Josh Hazlewood (1/27).
Despite a strong start from KKR’s openers, which saw them post 91 runs for the first wicket in just 10.4 overs, the CSK bowlers remained steadfast as Thakur delivered the breakthrough. Chahar and Hazlewood kept the pressure on the KKR bowlers by reducing their scoring rate and Ravindra Jadeja took advantage of the opportunity with two wickets in successive deliveries.