Chennai: In the 49th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024), Punjab Kings easily defeated Chennai Super Kings by 7 wickets. With this win, Punjab has kept its hopes alive of reaching the playoffs. However, it has become difficult for CSK to qualify. If Chennai had won this match, it would have easily made it to the playoffs.
In this match, after losing the toss and batting first, Chennai Super Kings posted a challenging score of 162 for 7. Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad scored the highest 62 runs (48 balls) for CSK. While Ajinkya Rahane contributed 29, Sameer Rizvi 21, Moeen Ali 15 runs and MS Dhoni 14 runs. MS Dhoni was run out for the first time in this match. This is the first time in IPL 2024 that Dhoni has lost his wicket.
Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar bowled brilliantly for Punjab Kings. Both took 2-2 wickets. While Harpreet gave 17 runs in 4 overs, Rahul Chahar gave only 16 runs in his 4 overs. On the other hand, Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossow and Sam Curran took the charge for Punjab Kings. Bairstow scored 46, Rilee Rossow 43 and captain Sam Curran played an unbeaten innings of 26 runs in 20 balls. Apart from this, Shashank Singh played an unbeaten innings of 25 runs. Punjab won this match by losing 3 wickets in 17.5 overs.
The road to the playoffs became difficult for Chennai
This defeat was painful for Chennai Super Kings. However, even after this defeat, they are at the fourth position in the points table. But before this they were in fourth place with 5 wins and 4 losses in 9 matches. Now they have lost 5 matches in the tournament. On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad team has secured 10 points in 9 matches only. That is, they have one match more than Chennai Super Kings and the points are equal. Delhi Capitals also have 10 points (11 matches). That is, Chennai Super Kings will now have to face a tougher challenge to make it to the playoffs.
