Jadeja puts in greatest T20 performance ever

Chennai Super Kings outplayed Royal Challengers at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium to become new leaders of the Indian Premier League 2021 points table.

Chennai pulled off the upset courtesy to the brilliant all-round performance of Ravindra Jadeja.

The in-form Bangalore top and middle-order seemed brittle against the quality bowling of Chennai.

The mammoth 192-run total proved to be too much for Kohli’s men, who fell 69 runs short.

With this win, Chennai have secured the top spot in the points table with the best run rate in the league (+1.612).

The Jadeja show

Ravi Jadeja can’t stop performing this season.

With his brilliant all-round display, he made, dismantling the Bangalore batting line-up, look too easy.

The Chennai star also smacked purple cap holder Harshal Patel for 37 runs in the last over, making the most of two chances gifted to him by RCB fielders.

His 3/13 with the ball and 62-run blitz earned him the Player Of The Match award.

Gaikwad ends opening woes

Gaikwad has a knack for getting better with time.

We saw this in 2020, and he’s showing it this season as well.

Despite a sluggish and demoralizing start of the campaign, Ruturaj Gaikwad has made amends with his bat.

He failed to make a mark in Chennai’s first three games but has now begun living up to coach Stephen Fleming’s expectations.

He belted a quickfire 62 against KKR in the fourth game and played a handy cameo of 33 against RCB today.

This eases the pressure of his opening partner Faf du Plessis who has had to score runs for two people so far.

With Gaikwad struggling to middle the ball at the start of the season, du Plessis had to take charge and play out of his skin to utilize the powerplay.

Now that Chennai management doesn’t have to worry about their opening partnership, they have become a strong candidate to win the title this year.

Chennai Super Kings 191 for 4 (Jadeja 62*, du Plessis 50) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 122 for 9 (Padikkal 34, Jadeja 3-13) by 69 runs.

Preview: Punjab Kings vs. Kolkata Knight Riders

Punjab Kings will take on Kolkata Knight Riders in their sixth game of the Indian Premier League 2021 at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on Monday night.

Expected playing XI

Punjab Kings

KL Rahul (C & WK), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Moises Henriques, Shahrukh Khan, Fabian Allen, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan (C), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Mavi.

Match prediction

Punjab Kings are not in the best shape going forward in the contest, but the side gathered momentum after winning the last game against Mumbai Indians.

Captain KL Rahul and Chris Gayle strolled past the reigning champions with a nine-wicket win, their second victory of the IPL 2021.

On the other hand, Kolkata has been bizarre this season.

They have not shown intent to win the games and consequently, rest at the bottom of the table with only two points.

Eoin Morgan’s side will be low on confidence, especially after losing to Rajasthan Royals in the last clash.

Their batting looks to be in really poor shape as all their stars, from Shubman Gill to Morgan to Dinesh Karthik look woefully out of touch.

Hence, KL Rahul’s men will, in all likelihood, soldier on to their third victory of the season on Monday.