Chennai, May 1: Spinners Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar took two wickets each in economical bowling spells of 2-17 and 2-16 as Punjab Kings restricted defending champions Chennai Super Kings to 162/7 in Match 49 of IPL 2024 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday.

For CSK, barring captain Ruturaj Gaikwad's 62, other batters struggled to get on top of PBKS bowlers on a fresh red-soil pitch having turn and bounce for spinners. After losing no wicket in power-play, CSK had a platform set for a big total.

But Brar and Chahar applied brakes to return with collective figures of 4-33 in eight overs and an economy rate of 4.25, while conceding no boundaries. The duo were nagging in their line and length, bowling on a stump to stump line and allowing the odd ball to get some turn.

Pushed into batting first, Gaikwad was stylish in punching and ramping Arshdeep Singh for a brace of fours in the second over. Though Arshdeep got a change of ends, he was hit for 14 runs in the fifth over – Rahane slammed him over point, while Gaikwad cut him twice through the same region to take three boundaries off it.

Rahane brought out the pull, cut and punch off Sam Curran on the last three deliveries of the sixth over, and take CSK to 55/0 at the end of power-play, making it the first time in this season of them not losing a wicket in the six-over phase.

But once Curran brought spinners on, PBKS were able to put in an almighty squeeze on CSK, who couldn’t get a boundary in the middle overs. Rahane holed out to deep mid-wicket off Brar, who trapped a sweeping Shivam Dube plumb lbw for a golden duck. Chahar joined in by trapping Ravindra Jadeja lbw, who was looking to play it on the leg-side.

Impact Player Sameer Rizvi’s laborious innings ended when he was caught by a sliding third man, while trying to ramp off Harshal Patel. But Gaikwad continued to stay afloat, getting his fifty in 44 balls by hammering Curran over long-on for six and pulled the left-arm pacer for another maximum to take 15 runs off the 16th over.

Moeen Ali lofted Arshdeep for six and four respectively, before the pacer bounced back by castling Gaikwad with a yorker. The call to get Chahar bowl the 19th over paid off when the leg-spinner castled Moeen. MS Dhoni powered a four and six off a wayward Arshdeep in the final over to take CSK past 160, before being run-out on the last ball, also ending his streak of seven unbeaten knocks in the competition.

Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 162/7 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 62, Ajinkya Rahane 29; Rahul Chahar 2-16, Harpreet Brar 2-17) against Punjab Kings

(IANS)

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