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Cricket News: Twitter reactions as CSK win their 4th IPL Trophy | MS Dhoni leads CSK to their 4th IPL trophy after victory over KKR
When IPL 2021 began in April in India, not many gave CSK a chance to win the trophy seven months later. And when the second phase began in the UAE in September, no one really gave KKR a chance of reaching the Final.
But here we were.
After beginning the second phase at the seventh spot, KKR won five of their remaining seven games to end up in the fourth spot at the end of the league stage.
Pressure was high at Dubai Sports City and the game sure was going to be a thriller. It all started with KKR winning the toss and putting CSK into bat first. In the past, that has worked for them when they won their two titles back in 2012 and 2014. On both occasions they ended up chasing over 190.
CSK got off to a steady start. It was not a flier by any means but they kept the scoreboard ticking just over seven and at the start Ruturaj was the aggressor in the partnership with Faf. After that, CSK kept the run rate at a steady pace and Uthappa made full use of the opportunity that he got. Playing at a SR of 206, Uthappa made sure that the loss of Gaikwad wasn’t felt and it was important to keep the scoring rate above eight, which he was successful in doing.
After getting rid of Uthappa, KKR felt like they were pulling things back until Moeen Ali and Faf Du Plessis kept nailing boundaries each over and never looked out of sorts. The enigma of Faf struck again as he scored 86 and was only dismissed on the last ball of the innings. He missed the Orange cap by two runs to his fellow opening partner Ruturaj Gaikwad.
At the mid innings break, Ruturaj had this to say, “It’s stopping, holding up, we did brilliantly well to get to 190, it’s going to be challenging for them. I think it’s enough but we need to execute well. I wanted Faf to hit a six off that last ball to add six more to our total (asked if he knew Faf was two short of the orange cap).”
KKR got off to a great start. The kind of start you would expect and hope for from your openers in a high pressure final chasing 193. But after the loss of the first wicket, KKR did not quite capitalise on that start and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Morgan made a gutsy move promoting himself to number 5 when things had not gone his way so far in the tournament. But that move did not pay off as he only played 8 balls to score 4 and saw wickets tumble at the other end.
In the end, KKR left things a little too late and lost the IPL final by 27 runs.
At the final presentations, Dhoni said, ”Before I start talking about CSK, need to talk about KKR. Difficult to come back and do what they have, if any team deserved to win the IPL, it’s KKR. Huge credit to the coaches, team and support staff. The break really helped them.
Coming to CSK, we shuffled players. We had match winners coming game after game and doing really well. Every final is special, if you look at stats, we may say we’re the most consistent team to lose the final too. I feel it’s important to come back strong, especially in the knockouts. Frankly no chats, we don’t talk a lot [meetings]. It’s more one-on-one, our practice sessions are meeting sessions. The moment you get into a team room, it brings about different pressure. Our practice sessions have been good. I would love to thank the fans, wherever we’ve played, even when we were in South Africa, we’ve always had a good number of CSK fans. That is what you crave for.”
Eoin Morgan after a pleasing campaign: “We are extremely proud of the fight we have shown. The character and fight is trademark. Our owners – Shahrukh, Venky have been absolutely outstanding. Guys fought incredibly hard and performed. Iyer and Gill have been outstanding. Ventakesh is new to this platform. They have been the cornerstone of our batting. Tripathi left everything out there today. Unfortunately, he picked up an injury.”
Twitter reactions as CSK lift 4th IPL trophy
Written by Nash Sant. Follow Nash on Twitter today
