A familiar tale unfolded in Dubai on Friday (October 2) as Chennai Super Kings left it late again in the run chase to eventually fall short and lose their third successive game in this year's IPL.
IPL 2020
CSK leave it late again to lose three in a row
Priyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma put on a match-turning stand © IPL
Didn't CSK change anything from the previous game?
They did. For starters, they dropped Murali Vijay in search of momentum in the powerplay. But the first four overs yielded only 13 runs with CSK also losing Shane Watson in the process. The returning Ambati Rayudu did little this time around as he was bowled for just 8 by the impressive T Natarajan. Another massive blow came in the final ball of the powerplay when the in-form Faf du Plessis was run out to leave his side reeling at 36/3.
Rashid chokes CSK
MS Dhoni did promote himself to number five finally and the brakes had to be applied immediately with Kedar Jadhav becoming Abdul Samad's first ever IPL wicket. CSK just didn't find any sort of momentum in the middle overs with Ravindra Jadeja batting on 8 off 16 balls at one stage. Rashid Khan was the man to cause problems again and even though he didn't pick up wickets, the legspinner conceded only 5 runs off his first three overs to choke the opposition. His impressive spell meant CSK had to go all guns blazing again in the final overs for the third successive game.
Was the target achievable?
Jadeja finally picked pace and went on to bring up his first ever IPL fifty but CSK in the end needed 78 from the last four overs. They needed 75 and 79 respectively from a similar stage against Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals previously and fell short on both occasions. Against Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Natarajan and Khaleel Ahmed, they were expected to go down the same route again before a small lifeline came out of nowhere. Bhuvneshwar was able to bowl only one ball in the 19th over and had to leave the field following
