OverPitched
PUNE: Poor running between the wickets cost Pune Warriors the wickets of Robin Uthappa and Sourav Ganguly in chase of 156, set by Chennai Super Kings.
Watch: Live IPL Streaming | Scorecard
Ganguly (16) was the second batsman to go after cheap exit of Uthappa (10).
Jesse Ryder gave Puen a flying start after Chennai Super Kings were restricted to 155/5 in the 16th IPL clash at the Sahara Subrata Roy Stadium on Saturday.
Jadeja took centrestage after opener Faf du Plessis slammed 43 off just 33 balls to set the tone for the visitors.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni contributed 26 off 28 balls while Suresh Raina struck 20 off 19.
Opting to bat, Chennai were off to a flyer as du Plessis went hammer and tongs, especially against left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra.
In all, du Plessis hit five fours and two sixes, while Jadeja slammed four boundaries and two sixes.
Du Plessis collected 18 runs off Nehra’s first over and soon the fifty was up on the board for the Super Kings.
Brought in to bowl the fourth over, Nehra was welcomed with a drive through the off-side. The second ball was carted over the extra cover for another boundary, and Du Plessis got the maximum when he nonchalantly went down the ground to hit Nehra over his head off the bowler’s fourth ball.
The show did not end there as the South African sweetly drove Nehra through the extra cover region for another boundary. Thanks to du Plessis’ onslaught, Chennai were able to maintain a health run-rate, which however dropped a bit after his dismissal.
Du Plessis’ was an important wicket from the Warriors’ point of view and the credit for that goes to Rahul Sharma who foxed the batsman with extra bounce in the 10th over.
Legspinner Sharma struck again when he had Raina, caught brilliantly by Steven Smith in the deep.
Chennai got a bit of momentum back as Jadeja picked Murali Karthik for special treatment, lofting him over long-off and long-on for a four and six respectively.
Jadeja then hoicked Marlon Samuels over long-on for a massive six, three overs after guiding the same bowler to the left of the sweeper fielder.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
