IPL 2018: Harbhajan Singh posts an appreciable tweet after last night's win against KXIP
The playoffs for the IPL have been decided following some impressive performances from all sides.
Kings XI Punjab’s (KXIP) bewildering journey in the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) finally came to an end, following their loss to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 5 wickets in the final game of the league stages. Following the loss suffered by Mumbai Indians (MI) in the first game yesterday, the Kings had to beat CSK by 53 or more runs, in order to qualify for the playoffs.
However, the KXIP bowlers failed to save the match for the team and consequently, the Rajasthan Royals qualified for the playoffs because of their higher points tally. CSK off-spinner Harbhajan Singh congratulated the whole team for their contributions in the victory last night.
Punjab suffers a huge top-order collapse
Mumbai’s loss in the first game sparkled the hopes of qualifying for the playoffs in the KXIP dressing room. However, KXIP suffered a huge top-order collapse in a must-win game, as the in-form opener KL Rahul, Chris Gayle and Aaron Finch were dismissed early, with just 16 runs on the board. The duo of David Miller and Manoj Tiwary then added some crucial runs to bail out the team from the trouble.
The CSK seamers exploited the pitch conditions very well and never allowed the opposition to run away with the game and kept taking regular wickets. Following the dismissals of Miller and Tiwary, Karun Nair played a splendid knock of 54 runs in just 26 balls to help his team post a fightable total. For CSK, Lungi Ngidi bowled outstandingly well and scalped 4 wickets and gave away just 10 runs.
CSK demolishes KXIP’s qualifying hopes
In reply to Punjab’s 153, CSK also lost some early wickets due to the superb opening spell bowled by fast bowler Ankit Rajpoot, who was pitching the ball on the right lengths. Despite the early jitters, the CSK veteran Suresh Raina played a calming and intelligent knock of 61 runs on a difficult wicket to take his team past the finishing line with an over to spare. Fast bowler Deepak Chahar and Harbhajan also contributed with crucial cameos to win the game for their team.
In the end, the CSK victory cleared the proceedings of the IPL 2018 playoffs. CSK will now be facing Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the first qualifier game on Tuesday.
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