It has been one of those matches which left everyone awestruck. A right word to describe the performance put up by both Chennai Super Kings and the Kings XI Punjab. The latter won the match by six wickets after a swashbuckling knock from Paul Valthaty.
Having won the toss, Kings XI Punjab chose to bat first on a pitch that had a lot to offer for the bowlers as well as the batsmen. Praveen Kumar squeezed everything out of the pitch in his initial over; dismissing Srikkanth Anirudha and Suresh Raina in the first two balls of the match.
Subramanian Badrinath and Murali Vijay put up a resilient 124-run stand to steady the ship for the Super Kings. The momentum kept going with the brisk scoring rate from the batsmen. Vijay scored in balls which included some gutsy sixes too. Badrinath kept the scoreboard ticking with his innings of 66. M.S. Dhoni continued his purple patch with his brutal innings that helped the Super Kings reach a total of 188/4 after 20 overs. It was an effort well applauded especially after their initial crisis.
Punjab had a mountain to climb to chase the target at more than nine runs an over. Adam Gilchrist and Paul Valthathy did exactly what they were supposed to do by putting up a brilliant opening stand. They raced to 61 in 5.5 overs when Gilchrist flicked a ball straight in the hands of Suraj Randiv to the bowling of Albie Morkel. For a change, he was a spectator to the murderous batting of Paul during his innings of 19. Shaun Marsh was run out leaving Kings XI reeling at 100-2 from 10.1 overs. With ample wickets in hand and nine overs to chase the total, Paul Valthaty continued with his marauder to the Super Kings’ bowlers. Every shot of his showed great execution and powerful strokeplay. Bowlers with the likes of Morkel, Ashwin, Southee, Jakati, and Randiv were all having a bad day at the office with an average economy of eight.
Sunny Singh offered some support with his cameo of 20 which included two boundaries and a six. He got out to the bowling of Randiv. A twist in the tale- Southee trapped Abhishek Nayar lbw at the very next delivery which left Punjab reeling again at 136-4. While all of this happened, Paul continued with what he had been doing throughout the innings. Usually, any ball that is pitched in a batsman’s area would be plundered to the boundary. But in Paul’s case there was no specific area. Every ball that came out of the bowler’s hands was hit for a boundary or a six and reached his century in 52 balls.
Eventually, he scored an unbeaten 120 from 63 balls which included 19 fours and 2 sixes. Dinesh Karthik provided the right support to Paul’s innings with his knock of 21 that included two fours and a six to seal things off for his team.
The commentators on air rightly described his innings- a colour blind batsman who could not see yellow fielders! Be it his slog sweeps or his slashes through the point or the hook strokes- he had it in his armour and used them at the right time.
While Chennai will have a lot to learn from this defeat especially their bowling and fielding aspects, Punjab got a huge morale booster to turn things around. No way better to do it under Gilchrist’s captaincy. He did it earlier for the Deccan Chargers and can be expected to do the same this time too. The match swayed both the sides with Chennai showing magnificent batting skills with their recover after the initial slump of two wickets. Punjab did the same too, but the smart chase ensured their victory.
Pictures © AFP
Pictures © AFP
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