Completing an inspirational turnaround from last season, the Chennai Super Kings defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs to lift their fourth Indian Premier League title at the Dubai International Stadium on Friday.

The MS Dhoni-led side finished bottom of the points table last year and missed the playoffs for the first time in their history. But this year, they had redemption in their eyes. 

After getting the better of Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 1, Chennai raced to their fourth title in fashion.

The toss

In the all-important toss, Kolkata skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and opted to bowl first. He said the wicket looked good but dry, with the dew expected to play a role as well. 

A steady start from Chennai

The ever-reliable Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis shared a 61-run opening partnership in eight overs before Gaikwad departed of 32 off 27 balls. 

‘Faf’bulous innings

However, it was the former South African skipper, whose innings anchored CSK to a mammoth total in the finale. First, du Plessis put up 61 runs with his opening partner Gaikwad and that was followed by a 63-run stand with Robin Uthappa (31 off 15 balls) for the second wicket. Uthappa’s quickfire knocked setup Chennai towards the 200-ish target. 

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In the end, Moeen Ali too chipped in with a stroke-filled 37 not out off 20 balls, laced with two fours and three sixes as he stitched a 68-run stand with du Plessis.

After scoring 86 runs off 59 balls, du Plessis’ wicket was scalped by Shivam Mavi on the final ball of the innings.

The dream start for KKR

Quite like the Chennai side, KKR too enjoyed a neat and clean start with both openers Shubman Gill (51 off 43 balls) and Venkatesh Iyer (50 off 32 balls) reaching the fifty mark. The two batters put up a 91-run stand and KKR looked en route to the target. 

The shambolic middle-order

While Iyer and Gill had put KKR’s innings on the track, their dismissals brought in a shambolic collapse that derailed the Kolkata run chase.

First to depart was Iyer, who was followed by Nitish Rana with a golden duck. Sunil Narine was done for pace by Josh Hazlewood while Gill’s wicket was snapped up by Chahar later. Next, Dinesh Karthik, Shakib Al Hasan and Morgan all walked back to the without bothering the scoreboard too much. 

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From 91/0 in the 11th over, KKR were down to 125/8 in the 17th.

For CSK, Shardul Thakur took three wickets while Ravindra Jadeja and Josh Hazlewood got two each.

A late charge from Mavi and Ferguson

Lockie Ferguson and Shivam Mavi tried to keep KKR’s hopes alive with 18 off 11 and 20 off 13 respectively, late into the second innings, however, it was too little too late to save the sinking ship as CSK cruised to their fourth title.