IPL 2021: Match 53, CSK vs PBKS – Who Said What

The 53^rd match of the Indian Premier League saw the light of the day between Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings. PBKS, who were trying their best to better up their net run rates, stunned all with their heroics in Dubai. PBKS won the game by six wickets while seven overs remained in the game. Winning the toss, Punjab won the toss and put Chennai to bat first.

The result turned every bit in their favor as CSK could only post 134 runs on the board on the back on Faf du Plessis’ terrific 76 off 55. However, this was all from their end as the rest of the Chennai batters failed to put anything remarkable on the board. Chris Jordan and Arshdeep Singh picked two wickets each while ace pacer Mohammed Shami kept being a miser when it came to conceding runs.

KL Rahul leads PBKS to a terrific victory

The entire focus and limelight of the match remained pinned to just one man and it was none other than PBKS skipper KL Rahul. Rahul looked unstoppable from the 1^st ball and gave fans the best look of all the cricketing shots. His unbeaten 98 off 42 pushed PBKS to a stunning victory and fetched him the player of the match award. Shardul Thakur picked three wickets for CSK but remained a bit costly.

Losing skipper, MS Dhoni said:

You have to cope (when it comes to mental or skill aspect) up with that. We had played very good cricket to reach the playoff stages. We had a few bad games 2 out of 3 and one we felt like we could have a comeback and that’s part and parcel d in leagues like these, you have to be at your best. Motivation is not a factor, the guys are highly motivated and maybe we need to tune up slightly as to what needs to be done and also a few tosses if they had gone our way. It would have looked worse winning toss and batting on that wicket and I felt the wicket changed a bit, it was a bit challenging but it was a good wicket.

Winning skipper and player of the match KL Rahul said:

It was really hot today. Plan was simple. The numbers guys told us a few permutations and combinations. We wanted to score it before 14 overs. Just one of those days when it comes off. Had complete clarity of what I wanted to do. I feel like I may end up letting the team down if I play how I want to play. But today, this was how I needed to play. Today was one of those days where I could hit every ball. No better feeling than hitting the ball from the middle of the bat.