Mumbai: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2021 final in Dubai to win the IPL for the fourth time.
CSK were playing their ninth final, while KKR was featuring in their third.
The match also marked MS Dhoni’s 300th match as T20 captain, the most for any player.
With this, MS Dhoni’s lineup won the IPL trophy for the fourth time, having previously won the tournament in 2010, 2011, and 2018.
Chasing 193 runs, KKR got off to a great start as the opening pair of Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill added 55 runs in the first six overs.
Iyer continued his form and completed his fifty in just 31 balls in the 10th over of the innings.
However, Iyer (50) was finally sent back to the pavilion by Shardul Thakur in the 11th over and the 91-run opening stand ended. In the same over, Nitish Rana was dismissed for a duck, and KKR was reduced to 93/2, still needing 100 runs to win off 54 balls.
The next fall for KKR was Sunil Narine (2), Shubman Gill (51), Dinesh Karthik (9), and Shakib Al Hasan (0) and Eoin Morgan’s 120/6 in the 15th over was quickly derailed. Gaya. Just 73 runs are needed to win. In the end, the task proved to be too much for KKR and CSK won the IPL 2021 title.
Earlier, Faf du Plessis brought his A-game to score 86 and helped CSK post a total of 192/3 against KKR. Openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis added 50 runs in the first six overs.
During this, Gaikwad overtook KL Rahul to become the highest run-scorer in this year’s IPL. Sunil Narine provided the much-needed breakthrough for KKR as he dismissed Gaikwad (32) in the 9th over to end the first stand of 61 runs.
Faf du Plessis continued his innings as he completed his fifty in the 11th over of the innings with CSK at 97/1. Robin Uthappa scored 31 runs in 15 balls and he proved to be a perfect fit for Faf as the duo put on 63 runs for the second wicket. However, Narine was once again back in action after Uthappa was dismissed in the 14th over, reducing CSK to 124/2.
“Moeen Ali came to bat the next and he played the same way and the KKR bowlers were left looking for answers. In the last three overs, CSK managed to add 39 more runs, taking the score to 190. Dhoni’s Moeen was unbeaten. 37 runs from the side.
Brief Scores: CSK 192/3 (Faf du Plessis 86, Moeen Ali 37*; Sunil Narine 2-26) vs KKR 165/9 (Shubman Gill 51, Venkatesh Iyer 50; Shardul Thakur 3-38). “
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