Shane Watson, du Faf du Plessis blow KXIP away

DUBAI: Shane Watson (83 not out) and Faf du Plessis (87 not out) brought Chennai Super Kings (CSK) back to winning ways in emphatic fashion on Sunday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

The pair put an unbeaten 181-run opening partnership to take their team to a 10-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).

The pair chased down the target of 179 with more than two overs to spare. This is the second highest target a team has managed to chased down without losing a wicket.

It is also only the second time that CSK have managed to win a match by 10 wickets and they are also the first team to successfully chase down a target in Dubai this season.

Watson and du Plessis hardly gave any threads for the bowling side and got off to a swift start. du Plessis smashed 19 runs off the sixth over to take CSK to 60 within the powerplay and they crossed 100 in the 10th over.

There were some murmurs between Watson and the umpire and later with KL Rahul over what seemed to Ravi Bishnoi's run-up during the 16th over. du Plessis finished off the chase with a six and a four off the third and fourth balls of the 18th over bowled by Shami.

Earlier, highly effective death over bowling from Shardul Thakur and Dwayne Bravo CSK restrict KXIP to 178/4 after the latter looked set for a total close to or beyond the 200-run mark.

KXIP's star openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal got them off to a good start and their partnership of 61 runs was only broken in the ninth over. Mandeep Singh played a useful cameo of 27 off 16 balls after which Nicholas Pooran put up a 58-run stand for the third wicket.

Shardul took two wickets in two balls in the 18th over to put the breaks on the innings. His first was that Pooran who was dismissed due to a sharp catch by Ravindra Jadeja in the deep after which he dismissed Rahul on 63.

Brief scores: KXIP 178/4 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 63, Nicholas Poorak 33; Shardul Thakur 2/39) vs CSK 181/0 in 17.4 overs (Faf du Plessis 87 not out, Shane Watson 83 not out; Sheldon Cottrell 0/30). IANS

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