In the face-off against Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings happening at Wankhede Stadium, both teams planned to showcase their best batting performance as Wankhede is famous for high scoring innings, but things took a turn for Punjab’s batting as CSK’s Deepak Chahar decided to turn up as the nightmare today.
Knowing that the pitch doesn’t really fit well with chasing teams, Chennai captain M.S Dhoni won the toss and chose to bowl, judging from the past and from their first match experience, Punjab Kings came out to the field determined to go big as they did in their first match against Rajasthan.
Mayank Agarwal and K L Rahul, an opening duo knows for their potential to destroy bowlers came to the crease but were in for a shock as Chennai’s Deepak Chahar dismissed Mayank Agarwal in his first over, the seamer made most use of his varied bowling attack which was difficult for Agarwal to as he looked to defend the ball but was already committed for the shot, the ball slipped and hit the top off and he made his way back to the Pavillion without giving Chennai any trouble with the score. Deepak Chahar’s brilliant delivery got Chennai a wicket at just 1 run.
Devastated by Mayank’s dismissal, K L Rahul and Chris Gayle looked for a way to revive the team, it was Chahar once again, the ball hit Chris Gayle’s pad and Chennai was appealing for the wicket to the umpire, meanwhile, Gayle and Rahul looked to take a quick single, but it wasn’t going to happen under Jadeja’s watch as he quickly charged towards the ball as he picked it up and threw a direct hit to the wickets so quick that K L Rahul wasn’t able to catch up resulting in a runout.
By this time, Punjab had taken two big blows as their best openers were sitting in the dressing room with less than 6 runs combined.
Chris Gayle terrified by Chahar’s bowling spell looked for a way to revive the team score with the help of Nichols Pooran, but he was quickly dismissed yet again by Deepak Chahar as he bowled a knuckleball that Gayle intended to hit towards mid-on but was unable to do so and hit the ball right of the short cover, Jadeja once again showed his exceptional fielding skills with a dive and caught the ball perfectly to send Gayle back to the stand for just 10 runs.
The next prey in turn was Nicholas Pooran, just after 2 balls of Gayle’s dismissal, Chahar bowled a bouncer forcing Pooran to pull it to deep square leg, Shardul Thakur did not even move from his place as the ball came right into his hands sending Pooran back to the pavilion for yet another duck.
A few overs later, Chahar was at the crease again to look for another wicket, it was Deepak Hooda at the batting end, Chahar bowled a seam-up delivery, Hooded committed to the shot very early and ended up chipping it to mid-off and the man down there was Faf du Plessis, known for never dropping catches, effortlessly caught the ball to land another blow to Punjab’s batting order.
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During the entire powerplay, Deepak Chahar has been an absolute nightmare for Punjab and the golden man for Chennai as he took wickets every time he got to the crease, Chahar proved his bowling excellence once again for Chennai in a crucial match here at Wankhede.
