Eoin Morgan misses the bat again as the Knight Riders fall from 91-0 to 125-8 after setting 193 to win; Moeen Ali shoots 37th at Chennai 192-3, which boasts 86 of 59 balls from du Plessis; Gaikwad beats du Plessis at Orange Cap by two runs; Harshal Patel from Bangalore wears the purple cap
Faf du Plessis celebrates reaching fifty in IPL final against Kolkata
Faf du Plessis’s 86 put Chennai Super Kings on track for a 27-race win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2021 IPL final in Dubai.
The South African scored three six and seven fours on 59 balls, with Ruturaj Gaikwad (32), Robin Uthappa (31 in 15) and Moeen Ali (37th in 20) also weighing in on the Super Kings accumulating 192-3.
Shubman Gill (50) and Venkatesh Iyer (51) responded with half a century on top of the Kolkata chase, but Chennai could not be denied their fourth IPL title as Shardul Thakur (3-38), Josh Hazlewood (2 -29) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-37) combined to restrict Kolkata to 165-9.
Kolkata, playing in his first IPL final since winning the tournament for the second time in 2014, quickly came under pressure after Eoin Morgan decided to pitch first.
Chennai’s prolific opening pairing of Du Plessis and Gaikwad again set the standard by putting 61 in 8.1 overs, although the South African should have been stumped by Dinesh Karthik for Shakib Al Hasan’s pitch in two.
Gaikwad surpassed KL Rahul as the tournament’s top run scorer when he reached 24 and his final tally of 635 would prove enough to hold off his teammate Du Plessis, who came within two runs.
Kolkata lost Rahul Tripathi to a hamstring strain before making his first breakthrough, as Gaikwad failed to overtake Shivam Mavi in the long run, ahead of Sunil Narine pins (2-26).
Uthappa, previously the only batsman in IPL history to claim the Orange Cup and win the trophy in the same year, quickly went to work, swinging Shakib over the midwicket for the first of three sixes in his innings.
Du Plessis was equally brutal, posting his 22nd IPL with fifty-of-35 balls throwing Lockie Ferguson across the park.
The pair put 63 on 34 balls before Uthappa, who fell on 13 when Narine couldn’t hold out a strong return, dropped lbw to the spinner attempting to reverse the sweep.
There was no truce from Chennai, as Moeen Ali and Du Plessis added 68 more than 40 balls, the Englishman prepared for the T20 World Cup with 37 undefeated from just 20 balls.
Two of Moeen’s three sixes came off Mavi’s third before the closer rallied in his fourth to pick up Du Plessis’s wicket as he tried to throw the last ball of the six-innings.
Kolkata’s chase should have taken an early hit when Iyer threw a Hazlewood ball up from behind before he had scored, but the rebound seemed to surprise MS Dhoni, who seized the opportunity.
The next installment disappeared over the rope behind the square, initiating a partnership between Iyer and Gill that reached 50 with just 5.4 overs.
The starters matched the fluidity they demonstrated by posting 96 in Wednesday’s Qualifier 2 win over Delhi despite Chennai’s attempts to slow down: Iyer moved to 41st of 25 with 92m six over Jadeja.
Another high from the next roulette over helped him reach his fourth IPL with fifty of only 31 balls.
Gill was 27 of 25 balls when he appeared to be caught deep by Rayudu in front of Jadeja only for the ball to be declared dead when it hit one of the cables holding Spider Cam.
Jadeja remained in the center of the action, maintaining his composure to grab a catch deep down as Iyer sliced Thakur up and down, making the score 91-1 with 10.4 overs.
Nitish Rana didn’t last until the very end, presenting a catch to du Plessis in the middle of the field and falling for a first-ball duck when a Thakur delivery appeared to stay on the field.
The match tilted further in Chennai’s favor when Narine (two) chose Jadeja at the deep end of the Hazlewood bowling alley, the third field to fall in the six-run space.
The wicket brought Eoin Morgan to the fold with the order rate approaching 12 runs and the weight of the chase on Gill’s shoulders as he hit fifty in 40 deliveries.
It seemed to take its toll when the starter tried to get Chahar out only to be trapped to lead lbw and even though Karthik got his first ball for six, he fell trying to clear the rope again.
Jadeja fired wide before sending Shakib Al Hasan back for a first ball duck and a limping Tripathi (two) had no choice but to swing, dressing Thakur for Moeen Ali at length.
