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Cricket News: Twitter reactions as CSK reach another IPL Final | Gaikwad, Uthappa and Dhoni lead CSK to win over DC in Qualifier 1
After finishing seventh last year in the UAE, MS Dhoni promised the fans that they will come back bigger and stronger next year. And so they did. With MSD’s captaincy and all the players knowing their roles in the team, CSK has yet again reached an IPL final in the 2021 season.
They battled it out with Delhi Capitals in the Qualifier 1 and to Delhi’s credit, they set a target which seemed very good at the innings break. Prithvi Shaw guided the Capitals in the powerplay until he was dismissed for 60. Delhi’s top order apart from Shaw looked shaky and they were left reeling at 80-4 when Rishabh Pant and Shimron Hetmyer got together to steady the innings and take the Capitals to a defendable total of 172-5.
Pant played a captains’ knock and kept the scoring run rate above 10 per over for the last five overs. After finishing the 15th over at 114/4, some great hitting from Pant and Hetmyer meant Capitals scored 58 runs in this period.
Super Kings were once again anchored by Ruturaj Gaikwad and Robin Uthappa at the top after losing Du Plessis early. The pair put on a partnership of 110 for the second wicket, but at the 15th over mark even that was looking like it won’t be enough as Capitals managed to get back into the game with a couple of quick wickets and CSK were left reeling at 121-4.
But with Ali, Jadeja and Dhoni still to come, CSK did not seem to panic one bit till they lost Gaikwad on the first ball of the 19th over. But then came the master stroke from MS Dhoni who we have seen time and again take decisions which are not well received at first but end up being really good decisions in the end. He promoted himself ahead of Jadeja, who has been quite sublime with the bat for CSK in the death.
At the fall of Gaikwad, the win probability for CSK was at 27%. Moeen Ali and MS Dhoni certainly did not tend to acknowledge the win probability at all and took the Capitals’ bowlers to the cleaners as they scored 11 runs from the penultimate over and 13 in the last one to take Super Kings to another IPL final. Even though CSK lost Ali at the start of the last over skying one off Tom Curran, Dhoni got on strike and hammered three fours in three balls to carry CSK over the line.
Capitals’ and Pant ended up giving the last over to Tom Curran when Rabada had one over left. In hindsight there will be key learning taken from this game for Capitals before they take on the winner of Eliminator (RCB vs KKR) in the Qualifier 2.
Twitter reactions as CSK reach yet another IPL Final
Written by Nash Sant. Follow Nash on Twitter today
