IPL 2021: Match 8, PBKS vs CSK – Who Said What

The 8th match of the Indian Premier League got underway between Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings. CSK won the match by six wickets and made MSD’s 200th  match a special moment. Winning the toss, the yellow franchise chose to bowl first and Punjab showed up with willows first. Batting first, PBKS got off to a poor start as their top and middle-order got traumatized by Deepak Chahar. Chahar started wreaking havoc from his very first over itself and sent back all the big names in no time.

Shahrukh Khan’s 47 off 36 was the only respectable score from Punjab’s end. With no other batter supporting him in the cause, the red team could only post 106 runs on the board. Chahar picked four wickets by conceding just 13 runs in his quota of four overs and was eventually awarded the player of the match award. Sam Curran also remained quite economical for his team while picking one wicket.

Moeen Ali plays a prolific knock for CSK

While chasing the low-scoring target, Faf du Plessis (36 off 33) and Moeen Ali (46 off 31) did the majority of the work for the yellow team. Mohammed Shami picked two wickets for the team and conceded runs at an economy of 5.20. As the target was too small, even fine bowling from PBKS couldn’t have stopped CSK to get over the line.

Losing skipper, KL Rahul said-

There’s not much more to say. If any team loses five wickets in the first seven or eight overs, it’s always going to be catch up. They bowled well, we played some bad shots, that’s how the game goes. It (pitch) was a lot more sticky and tacky than what it looked like. Credit to the CSK bowlers, they bowled in the right channels, Deepak with his knuckle balls got a couple of wickets, getting myself run-out doesn’t help the team. Just the way we started, the pitch was still okay, it wasn’t a 100-110 wicket, maybe 150-160 sort of a wicket. But, it’s a good learning for us, hopefully we can learn from these mistakes and come back stronger in the next game. We have pace in our attack, we obviously want to use that. The first game didn’t go too well for those two (Richardson and  Meredith), it was their first game and I am sure they were a bit nervous. That was the chat after the game as well, that’s how IPL goes.

Winning skipper, MS Dhoni said-

Feels very good. Been a very long journey. Different conditions, a very interesting journey. I think 2011 was the last time we were very happy with the Chennai wicket. After that however hard the groundsmen tried we were not happy with the wicket. Especially after relaying the ball doesn’t come on to the bat nicely. Here we have a very good pitch. Movement off the seam, bounce and runs. Chahar is somebody who has developed at a death overs bowler too.  As a bowling unit we have more resources. I was looking to attack, so bowled his four overs and it helps in becoming fit because to bowl 4 successive overs you need to be fit. We wanted Moeen to bat high because we wanted to make the best use of resources we have. I thought the LBW shout was high. So told him no we are not reviewing. DRS is there to take howlers  away and not just to take a chance.

Player of the match, Deepak Chahar said-

 I think Mayank’s wicket I enjoyed the most – a dream ball for a bowler to swing and hit top of off stump. You want to pitch it close to middle and then move to hit top of off. When the catch went to Ruturaj, I wanted Jadeja to be there because he’s the one fielder who can take the difficult ones. Hopefully I can deliver in some more matches.  As a bowler my plan is to bowl dots if I don’t take wickets. The bowlers from the other end will also be able to take wickets.