IPL: Punjab end Chennai's winning run
Mohali, April 15: Kings XI Punjab defeated Chennai Super Kings by four runs here on Sunday to end southern outfit's winning run in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Put in to bat, Punjab wasted their solid start but managed to post a challenging total of 197/7. In reply, Chennai batters failed.
Apart from Ambati Rayudu (49) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (79 not out), no other batsmen seemed comfortable in-front of Punjab's bowlers and went cheaply to lose the game.
Big names like Shane Watson (11), Murali Vijay (12), Sam Billings (9) and Ravindra Jadeja (19) failed to score handsomely in a big run chase. Towards the end, Dhoni tried to pull off the things single-handedly but failed and his 44-ball unbeaten innings went in vain.
For Punjab, Andrew Tye scalped two wickets.
Earlier, Kings XI Punjab failed to make the most of the flying start given by openers Chris Gayle and Lokesh Rahul and settled for 197/7.
Rahul (37 runs in 22 balls) and Gayle (63 runs in 33 balls) gave the hosts a rousing start, slamming 96 runs in eight overs. But after their wickets, no other batsman took advantage of it and failed to score runs, thanks to the Chennai bowlers' disciplined bowling.
Rahul fell in the eighth over when the scoreboard was reading 96. After adding a few more runs, Gayle also departed, courtesy pacer Shane Watson, in the 12th over. The West Indian batsman slammed seven boundaries and four sixes.
Mayank Agarwal (30) and Yuvraj Singh (20), then tried to maintain the pace set by the openers but in the process both departed after a good start.
Aaron Finch was out on a golden duck.
Karun Nair (29) and skipper Ravichandran Ashwin (14) tried to stretch their team's total to the 200-run mark but failed and departed one after the other.
For Chennai, Shardul Thakur and Imran Tahir scalped two wickets each.
Brief scores: Kings XI Punjab 197/7 (Chris Gayle 63; Imran Tahir 2/34) against Chennai Super Kings: 193/5 (Mahendra Singh Dhoni 79; Andrew Tye 2/47)
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Duleep Trophy: Pacers shine as India B beat India A by 76 runs
Bengaluru, Sep 8: KL Rahul's gumption, which helped him pile a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers led by Yash Dayal pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday.
Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack.
Rahul top-scored for 'A' with a 51.
In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.
The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.
That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.
Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.
Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former's bat in just 18 balls.
But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag's bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.
Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.
Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.
They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.
However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.
The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.
But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.
It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3x4, 4x6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.
But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.
Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.
Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).
The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
