Liam Livingstone scored 60 runs with the bat and took two wickets with the ball to guide Punjab Kings to a 54-run win against Chennai Super Kings here at Brabourne Stadium on Sunday. CSK lost their third consecutive match of the season while Punjab registered their second win of the season. Chasing a 181-run target Chennai Super Kings got off to a poor start losing Ruturaj Gaikwad to Kagiso Rabada caught in the first slip to Shikhar Dhawan for 1. In the next over IPL debutant, Vaibhav Arora got his maiden wicket in the league dismissing opener Robin Uthappa for 13 caught by captain Mayank Agarwal as CSK lost their second wicket for 14.
In his next over Vaibhav Arora got his second wicket in the match as Moeen Ali played on delivery from outside the off-stump for a duck. In the fifth over Arshdeep Singh was introduced into the attack and the left-arm pacer cleaned up CSK skipper Ravindra Jadeja for a duck to leave his side in trouble at 23/4.
In the eighth over Ambati Rayudu was sent packing for 13 by Odean Smith as Chennai lost half of its side for 36. Playing his 350th match Mahendra Singh Dhoni walked into bat and along with Shivam Dube took the team’s total beyond a 50-run knock.
Shivam Dube played the attacking role while Dhoni ensured that Chennai does not lose another wicket to take the partnership beyond the 50-run mark. Dube notched up his half-century off just 26 balls. The 62-run partnership was broken by Liam Livingstone as he dismissed Dube for 57 off 30 balls. In the very next ball, he dismissed Dwayne Bravo caught and bowled for a golden duck. In the next over Dwaine Pretorius was dismissed by Rahul Chahar in the next over to leave Chennai in deep trouble at 107/8.
Dhoni showed some fight with some late flourish but Chennai still needed 60 runs of the last three overs. Chahar dismissed Dhoni caught behind by wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma for 23 off 28 balls. Chahar delivered the final nail in the coffin dismissing Chris Jordan for 5 and bowling out CSK for 126 to win the match by 54 runs. This was CSK’s third consecutive defeat of the season.
Earlier CSK skipper Ravindra Jadeja won the toss and opted to bowl first and his decision proved to be the right one with Mukesh Choudhary getting the prized scalp of Punjab Kings captain Mayank Agarwal for 4 in the second ball of the match. In the next over CSK got another wicket as Chris Jordan and wicket-keeper MS Dhoni ran out Bhanuka Rajapaksa for 9 to leave Punjab tottering at 14/2.
The 2014 finalists Punjab needed a partnership and Shikhar Dhawan and Liam Livingstone did exactly that. Dhawan played the supporting role while Livingstone batted aggressively to take the team’s total beyond the 50-run mark hitting Mukesh Choudhary for 26 runs in the over. Liam Livingstone notched up his half-century to take his team’s total beyond the triple-figure mark. The 95-run partnership was broken as Dwayne Bravo dismissed Shikhar Dhawan for 33 off 24 balls.
Punjab lost Livingstone for 60 from 32 balls as CSK skipper Jadeja dismissed the danger man. Jitesh Sharma and Shahrukh Khan struck a small partnership with Jitesh being aggressor. Pretorius dismissed Jitesh for 26 and in the next over Chris Jordan got the wicket of Shahrukh to leave Punjab at 151/6. In his next over Jordan got his second success dismissing Odean Smith for 3.