MS Dhoni’s Team Chennai picked their 15th win over Team Punjab in the Indian T20 League on Friday, April 16, this time defeating them by six wickets in what was a rather low-scoring affair.
Wankhede’s wicket is known for being a batting paradise, but a Deepak Chahar masterclass had restricted Punjab to just 106/8 after they were put in to bat first. Such was Chennai’s dominance in the game that Punjab could only muster 26/4 in the powerplay overs, which is in fact their fourth-lowest powerplay score in the Indian T20 League.
The only player for Punjab who shone was Shahrukh Khan. The middle-order batsman scored 47 off 36 balls and is potentially the reason why Punjab could even cross the 100-run mark. A total of 106/8 is now Punjab sixth-lowest total in the league and the third-lowest team total in the first innings in the Indian T20 League.
There were several such records on the night and here we look at a few of them.
Deepak Chahar’s masterclass
A bowling figure of 4/13 is now is the best return for Chennai pacer Deepak Chahar in the Indian T20 League. This is, in fact, the first time that the 28-year-old has picked four wickets in his Indian T20 League career. Meanwhile, this figure helped him become the sixth-highest wicket-taker for Chennai in the league. This is now the third-best bowling spell by a Chennai bowler vs Punjab in the league.
| Deepak Chahar's best bowling figures in Indian T20 League | ||||
| Wickets | Runs | Opponent | Venue | Date |
| 4 | 13 | Punjab | Wankhede Stadium | 16 April 2021 |
| 3 | 15 | Hyderabad | Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium | 22 May 2018 |
| 3 | 20 | Kolkata | MA Chidambaram Stadium | 9 April 2019 |
| 3 | 26 | Mumbai | Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium | 12 May 2019 |
Chahar has a knack for picking early wickets in the Indian T20 League and thus it does not come as a surprise that a whopping 73,47% of his total wickets (36/48) have come in the first six overs. Furthermore, while he has picked just two wickets between 7-15 overs, he has scalped 11 wickets between 16-20 overs.
Shahrukh Khan the only survivor
While Punjab kept on losing wickets, a certain Shahrukh Khan went on to play his best-ever Indian T20 League knock, scoring 47 off 36 balls. He scored 44.34% runs of his team’s total. The 25-year-old scored a majority of his runs (20) at mid-wicket and covers. Furthermore, a detailed bifurcation of his knock explains how he took the Chennai bowlers to the cleaners. While he couldn’t muster runs against the likes of Deepak Chahar and Sam Curran, he made Shardul Thakur his prey, smashing the pacer for 19 runs in 11 runs, hitting him at a strike rate of 172.72.
Moeen and Faf's impressive partnership
While Chennai opener Faf du Plessis remained unbeaten at 36, it was Moeen Ali’s performance that grabbed the attention. The England all-rounder, who came out to bat at No. 3, scored 46 off just 31 balls and missed out on his fourth Indian T20 League half-century by whiskers. Ali played a 66-run stand with du Plessis and scored 69.70% of runs (46) in the partnership.
| Moeen Ali vs Punjab bowlers | ||||
| Bowlers | Runs | Balls | Strike Rate | Run % |
| Arshdeep Singh | 4 | 3 | 133.33 | 8.69 |
| Jhye Richardson | 1 | 1 | 100.00 | 2.17 |
| Mohammed Shami | 10 | 6 | 166.66 | 21.73 |
| Murugan Ashwin | 18 | 11 | 163.63 | 39.13 |
| Riley Meredith | 13 | 10 | 130.00 | 28.26 |
Murugan Ashwin finally got the Englishman off the crease but the spinner was, in fact, the most expensive bowler against Ali, conceding 18 runs off 11 balls. Ali’s effort guided Chennai to a win with 26 balls still remaining. This is their fourth-largest win in terms of balls remaining in the Indian T20 League. Three of their top five wins in terms of balls remaining have come in Mumbai.
Featured photo: Twitter / IPL
