It’s almost two years since Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders locked horns in the final of the Indian Premier League 2021 on this day, October 15. Both teams played the summit clash of the tournament at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai as the tournament was moved away from India due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The day is also special as Chennai Super Kings won their fourth IPL title under the captaincy of former legendary Indian skipper MS Dhoni.
Speaking of the action of the match, KKR skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and asked the then-3-time champions, Chennai Super Kings to bat first. Batting first, the yellow outfits posted a very decent total of 192 runs for the loss of just 3 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Star opener Faf du Plessis played a blistering knock of 86 runs off just 59 balls, hitting 7 fours and 3 sixes.
Du Plessis also stitched a very strong partnership of 61 runs for the first wicket with his young partner Ruturaj Gaikwad (32 runs off 27 balls, 3 fours and a six). Other than these two, the two batters of top-4, Robin Uthappa and Moeen Ali also played the crucial knocks of 31 and 37 runs off just 15 and 20 balls, respectively, to help CSK cross the mark of 190+ runs in the first innings.
KKR face middle-order collapse after strong opening partnership
While defending the target, the CSK bowlers restricted Morgan’s men to the score of only 165 runs, scalping their 9 wickets in 20 overs. Openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iiyer were only two good run-scorers for the two-time IPL champions but other batters apart from these two, failed drastically and the side faced a middle-order collapse.
Gill and Iyer played the half-century knocks of 51 and 50 runs, respectively; the duo also stitched a big 91-run stand for the first wicket but it couldn’t be capitalized by the rest of the batters.
Shardul Thakur scalped 3 wickets for CSK, alongside two wickets claimed by Josh Hazlewood and Ravindra Jadeja. Apart from this, Deepak Chahar and Dwayne Bravo also bagged one wicket each. Eventually, Chennai won the match by 27 runs clinched their fourth IPL title.
Faf du Plessis won the ‘Player of the Match award for his match-defining 86-run knock in favour of Chennai Super Kings.
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