Chennai Super Kings lift 4th IPL title

DUBAI: In a head-to-head match, Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs in the final of IPL 2021 at the Dubai International Stadium here on Friday. With this win, Chennai have now clinched their fourth IPL title. It completes a remarkable comeback for Chennai, who were placed seventh last season and have now won their fourth IPL trophy in a campaign which started with a loss but ended with a win.

Chasing 193, the way KKR openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer started the chase, it looked like the target would not be that difficult. But once they were out, Kolkata's chase fell through as they lost wickets at regular intervals to end up with 165/9 in their 20 overs.

Gill pulled the first ball of the innings over mid-on off Deepak Chahar. Iyer, dropped on zero, swatted Josh Hazlewood over backward square leg for a powerful six. The run-fest continued as Gill and Iyer crunched seven fours between themselves to give Kolkata an emphatic start with 55/0 in power-play.

Iyer tore into Ravindra Jadeja with two sixes before reaching his half-century in 31 balls. Gill, who survived a caught dismissal as the ball touched the Spidercam wire, hammered Jadeja for back-to-back boundaries. The 91-run opening partnership was ended by Shardul Thakur in the 11th over as Iyer holed out to long-on.

Two balls later, Thakur forced Nitish Rana to chip a cross-seam delivery to mid-off. Sunil Narine's promotion to four ended in pulling straight to deep mid-wicket off Hazlewood. Gill reached his half-century by smacking Jadeja over cover.

But in the next over, Chahar took him out with a dipping slower full toss which hit him in front of the stumps while going for the ramp shot. Dinesh Karthik opened his account by pulling Chahar over long leg. In the next over, Karthik tried to repeat the shot against Jadeja but found deep backward square leg. One brought two for Jadeja as Shakib Al Hasan was trapped plumb in front of the wicket.

From 120/6 in 15 overs, the result was a foregone conclusion. Rahul Tripathi (2) and Eoin Morgan (4) were dismissed cheaply in successive overs. Shivam Mavi and Lockie Ferguson struck well-timed boundaries but at the end, it was too little too late for Kolkata.

Earlier, Faf du Plessis (86 off 59 balls) played a magnificent knock to guide Chennai Super Kings to 192/3 in 20 overs.

It was an incredible batting effort from Chennai with every batter contributing to the score as Kolkata faltered in their pursuit to apply the choke in middle overs.

Inserted into batting first, Chennai had a flying start as 50 runs came for no loss in the power-play. Ruturaj Gaikwad got off the mark by taking three boundaries off Shakib Al Hasan's first two overs. Lockie Ferguson came under the attack as Gaikwad and du Plessis took 12 runs off him. Du Plessis then struck a boundary against Shivam Mavi and Varun Chakravarthy to match with Gaikwad's pace.

Post timeout, the opening stand of 61 runs was broken by Sunil Narine as Gaikwad (32), who also became the Orange cap holder, holed out to long-off. Du Plessis broke the spell of 17 singles by carting Al Hasan over long-off before Robin Uthappa slammed him over deep mid-wicket for the second six of the over.

Du Plessis slammed Ferguson for back-to-back fours before ending the over with a six over long-off to reach his half-century in 35 balls. Uthappa (31) made full use of a reprieve from Narine to slam Chakravarthy, followed by Narine, for sixes. But Narine had the last laugh as Uthappa's attempt to reverse sweep ended in a plumb lbw decision.

Moeen Ali took Mavi for two sixes over cow corner and down the ground to bring 150 up for Chennai. Ferguson's horror match continued as Ali went inside-out for a four before du Plessis smacked him for a six and four to complete 19 runs off his final over. Ali creamed Chakravarthy for a four and a six. But Shivam Mavi conceded seven in the final over, including du Plessis holing out to long-off on the final ball, to keep Chennai under 200. IANS

CSK vs KKR 2021 Scorecard