Defending champions Chennai Super Kings have had a disappointing start to the IPL season this year. Chennai have lost for the third match in a row. Kolkata beat Chennai in the opening match, followed by Lucknow and Chennai in the third. Chasing Punjab’s 181 for victory, Chennai were bowled out for 126. Punjab won the match by 54 runs.
The Punjab team had a bad start. Captain Mayank Agarwal and third-ranked Bhanuka Rajapaksa returned cheaply. After this, Shikhar Dhawan and Livingstone shaped Punjab’s left. In particular, Livingstone washed the Chennai bowlers and hit fours at the Brabon ground. Bravo dismissed Shikhar Dhawan to break Punjab’s lead. But on the other hand, Livingstone had completed its half-century and continued to give Chennai a tough fight.
Ravindra Jadeja gave another blow to Punjab by dismissing Livingstone. Livingstone scored 60 off 32 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes. After this Jitesh Sharma, Kagiso Rabada and Rahul Chahar batted in the last overs to take Punjab to 180 runs. From Chennai, Pretorius and Chris Jordan took 2-2 wickets each while Mukesh Chaudhary, Bravo and Jadeja took 1-1 wickets each.
In response, Chennai started badly. Vaibhav Arora bowled Rituraj Gaikwad to give Chennai the lead. After this, CSK’s left leak did not stop. At regular intervals, all the Chennai batsmen kept coming back one after the other. In the middle order, Shivam Dubey celebrated his half-century with an important partnership with Dhoni. But the Punjab bowlers did not allow the pair to settle on the field for long and the Punjab side remained dominant. From Punjab, Rahul Chahar took 3 wickets, Vaibhav Arora and Livingstone took 2 wickets each while Rabada-Arshdeep Singh and Oden Smith took 1 wicket each.
