That’s all from me for now. I’ll be back soon with Rajasthan Royals against Kolkata Knight Riders, an old-fashioned, winner-takes-all six-pointer. Join me if you can.
Chennai Super Kings win by seven wickets!
16.5 overs: Chennai Super Kings 134-3 (Raina 41, Dhoni 25)
Dhoni tries a flying, running, over-the-shoulder scoop to divert Anureet Singh’s second ball, pitched short, for six – and the next flies over long off for another, the ball clearing the fielder on the boundary by a metre or so! A single later Raina hits the winning runs, thanks to a misfield at short third man which allows the ball to rumble through to the boundary.
Updated
16th over: Chennai Super Kings 117-3 (Raina 37, Dhoni 12)
Hendricks bowls, and Dhoni nails another pull shot, the ball rolling through a giant gap in the field at midwicket and away for four. There’s a time out at the end of the over, with CSK needing 14 runs from four overs at 3.5 an over.
15th over: Chennai Super Kings 109-3 (Raina 36, Dhoni 5)
Anureet Singh’s first three balls bring singles, and then Dhoni pulls away the fourth to the square leg boundary. The next goes in an almost-identical direction but not quite so fast, and he only gets a single from it. CSK need 20 runs at precisely four an over.
14th over: Chennai Super Kings 102-3 (Raina 34, Dhoni 0)
Faf flicks the ball off his thigh and past square leg, the ball eventually being stopped on the boundary by Sandeep Sharma. He gets a couple of that, a couple a little later for a brawny whip through midwicket, and then he’s out. Dhoni has three balls to get off the mark, and doesn’t. CSK need 29 runs from 36 balls, at 4.83 an over.
WICKET! Du Plessis b Dhawan 55 (Chennai Super Kings 102-3)
The half-century man is beaten! He shuffles back to give himself some space and then finds himself totally undone by Dhawan’s yorker, which crashes into the stumps!
13th over: Chennai Super Kings 97-2 (Du Plessis 51, Raina 34)
Faf reaches 50 with a single off Gurkeerat, having taken 36 deliveries to get there. This has been the only partnership worthy of the name in the game, and surely it’ll be enough to win it, even if these batsmen aren’t around to score the winning runs.
12th over: Chennai Super Kings 92-2 (Du Plessis 49, Raina 31)
Patel bowls, Faf sniffs opportunity and he scurries down the pitch before hoiking down the ground for six. Then he pulls one through midwicket, just wide of the fielder and away for four, with the cry of “catch!” still stuck in the bowler’s throat. CSK now need 39, at under 4.9 an over.
11th over: Chennai Super Kings 81-2 (Du Plessis 38, Raina 31)
Gurkeerat bowls short and wide, and Raina screams with frustration when his cuts rolls straight to a fielder. But CSK don’t need fireworks now, and don’t try to set any off – five from the over, and that’ll do.
10th over: Chennai Super Kings 76-2 (Du Plessis 36, Raina 28)
Patel’s first delivery is dropped a little short and Faf brawns it over midwicket and away for four. The five remaining deliveries all go for singles, and at the halfway stage CSK have 58.5% of their target, and need just 5.5 runs an over from here on in.
9th over: Chennai Super Kings 67-2 (Du Plessis 29, Raina 26)
Anureet Singh becomes the seventh bowler used by Kings XI in their first nine overs. They seem overloaded with seamers, on what’s an excellent pitch for spin. It’s a decent over, though, yielding four runs, all singles.
8th over: Chennai Super Kings 63-2 (Du Plessis 27, Raina 24)
Axar Patel does some spinning, and there’s a wide, five singles and two off the last, again scooped over his shoulder by Du Plessis.
7th over: Chennai Super Kings 55-2 (Du Plessis 23, Raina 21)
Having flopped with the bat, Maxwell flops with his fingers as well. First Du Plessis tickles the ball to deep fine leg and gets four for his pains, and then scoops one over his left shoulder for a single. Then Raina misjudges one, prodding the ball back to the bowler at shoulder height, but he’s surprised to have a chance to catch it, doesn’t get his hands in the right place and drops it.
6th over: Chennai Super Kings 47-2 (Du Plessis 18, Raina 20)
Rishi Dhawan bowls wide and Du Plessis hits it, almost baseball style, just past the bowler and away for four. A little later the batsmen take a single, the fielder throws down the stumps, and the umpire calls for a TV review. Inexplicably, really, as Raina couldn’t be more obviously in, and there was scarcely an appeal. To nobody’s surprise, it shows he’s in by about two metres.
5th over: Chennai Super Kings 40-2 (Du Plessis 13, Raina 19)
Gurkeerat brings the spin, and Raina boshes safely, high over mid on, for four. A little later Du Plessis hits straight, the bowler fields, and the batsmen run right into each other, though they get away with it, and profit when Raina spears the next through midwicket for four. CSK are no longer behind – Kings XI were 35-2 after five.
4th over: Chennai Super Kings 28-2 (Du Plessis 12, Raina 8)
Hendricks continues, and Du Plessis punches his opening delivery through the covers for four, and then pushes over midwicket, just out of reach of the close fielders, and it’s eventually fielded just before the rope, the batsmen running three. Kings XI were better off at this stage, on 31-1.
3rd over: Chennai Super Kings 17-2 (Du Plessis 4, Raina 6)
These batsmen are in no hurry – chasing a lowish total there’s time for them to play themselves in, but losing their wickets quickly would probably be bad news. Raina does get a four, though with a totally safe caress along the ground through the covers.
Not a good way to end! But thank you for ur contribution in this season Baz! We are going to miss you on the field & with the bat! #CSK
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) May 16, 2015
2nd over: Chennai Super Kings 10-2 (Du Plessis 3, Raina 0)
Kings XI of course need wickets, and plenty of them, to make up for the ones they gave away at the start of their innings. Beuran Hendricks bowls over two, and does well to deny McCullum the width to flay the ball around. Eventually McCullum tires of that game, shuffles backwards to give himself room to swing his bat, and edges over a short third man and off to the boundary. He edges the next as well, into the ground and thence to the stumps.
WICKET! McCullum b Hendricks 6 (Chennai Super Kings 10-2)
And that’s the big one! McCullum chops into his stumps, and maybe this won’t be the procession so many were predicting!
1st over: Chennai Super Kings 2-1 (McCullum 1, Du Plessis 0)
Sandeep Sharma bowls the first over, and the opening delivery flies off Hussey’s edge, past slip and away for a single, then the last flies off his edge and straight into Saha’s gloves. Hussey is expected to open for CSK when McCullum’s in England, but if he hoped to play himself into form here, he hasn’t happened.
WICKET! Hussey c Saha b Sharma 1 (Chennai Super Kings 2-1)
Michael Hussey’s first innings of the season ends pretty swiftly, with a slight nick through to the keeper from the last ball of the first over!
Updated
The players are back out, and CSK’s reply is about to get under way.
And that’s the end of the innings. It ended reasonably well, but Chennai Super Kings have got to be strong favourites to win from here.
20th over: Kings XI Punjab 130-7 (Dhawan 25, Hendricks 1)
Nehra bowls the final over, mixing up pace and length and befuddling Dhawan with a slow bouncer and conceding just one run from his first four deliveries. Then Dhawan sets himself for a wide one, Nehra doesn’t spot him go or doesn’t adjust, and the ball disappears over midwicket for a low, hard, six.
Updated
19th over: Kings XI Punjab 122-7 (Dhawan 18, Hendricks 0)
Bravo’s first ball is smacked high, high over long on by Patel. Du Plessis tries to catch the ball on the boundary – weirdly, backhand – but misses it, and would have landed well behind the rope anyway. A single later Dhawan goes down on one knee to heave over long on himself, and there’s certainly no catching this one! An expensive over, but it ends with a wicket, and Bravo’s purple-cap campaign continues.
Updated
WICKET! Patel c Dhoni b Bravo 32 (Kings XI Punjab 122-7)
Axar Patel tries to heave over midwicket but gets a thick top edge, sending the ball straight into the air, and Dhoni collects it on its way back down to earth!
18th over: Kings XI Punjab 108-6 (Patel 25, Dhawan 11)
Patel thumps the ball to the long on boundary, a rare outbreak of perfect timing in what’s recently been a festival of slight mishits. Four singles too from Jadeja’s over.
17th over: Kings XI Punjab 100-6 (Patel 19, Dhawan 10)
Dwayne Bravo, the leading wicket-taker in this season’s IPL, bowls for the first time today, and will have no more than two overs. You can’t say the focus on spin hasn’t paid off for CSK, but if he doesn’t end up with the purple cap Bravo might feel a little underappreciated. No wickets here, just singles. Six of them. And finally, Kings XI’s total slides into triple figures.
16th over: Kings XI Punjab 94-6 (Patel 16, Dhawan 7)
Negi’s final over, and Dhawan sweeps powerfully for four, and then slips the ball to thrid man for a couple. Here’s that Jadeja catch. The ball was really travelling, low and hard. An absolute beauty.
15th over: Kings XI Punjab 85-6 (Patel 15, Dhawan 1)
Suresh Raina bowls his first over of the day, and Patel, with a punch through the covers for four followed by a last-ball single, becomes the third Kings XI batsman to reach 15 runs – none, so far, has exceeded it. They take a time out at the end of the over, and must be tempted to run away while nobody’s looking.
14th over: Kings XI Punjab 78-6 (Patel 9, Dhawan 0)
Negi bowls and Miller totally misses the ball, which bounces over the stumps, past Dhoni and away for four byes. A stroke of luck, then, but his good fortune wasn’t to last for long.
WICKET! Miller c Jadeja b Negi 11 (Kings XI Punjab 78-6)
Woah! What a catch that is from Jadeja! Miller cracks the ball to midwicket, low and hard, and as the camera pans you expect to see the ball flying over the rope – but instead Jadeja dives full length to his left to take the ball six inches off the ground! Remarkable!
13th over: Kings XI Punjab 71-5 (Miller 11, Patel 7)
Ashwin spins the ball past Patel and Dhoni whips off the bails, but the batsman had his big toe grounded behind the line. Three singles from the over, Ashwin’s last.
Updated
12th over: Kings XI Punjab 68-5 (Miller 10, Patel 5)
If Maxwell, back in the dressing room, has taken his head out of his hands yet, he just got shown how to reverse-sweep against spin, Miller absolutely nailing one and sending the ball rocketing to the boundary.
11th over: Kings XI Punjab 59-5 (Miller 3, Patel 3)
Ashwin bowls, and yields three singles. The last five overs have brought, on average, 3.6 runs each.
10th over: Kings XI Punjab 56-5 (Miller 2, Patel 1)
Jadeja comes in, and TV coverage switches to someone standing with a microphone just off the pitch. This is when they interview whichever celebrity has turned up, but no celebrities seem to have turned up today, so she just asks the cheerleaders to dance a bit. Kings XI don’t really feel like dancing right now. Those two reverse sweep attempts were pretty ugly and hopelessly mistimed, and then the next straightened a bit and clipped the top of middle stump, again poorly played.
WICKET! Maxwell b Jadeja 6 (Kings XI Punjab 55-5)
Maxwell’s average slips further, and his horribly disappointing IPL season is over. He tries a couple of reverse sweeps, neither of them coming off, and then gets bowled off the next!
9th over: Kings XI Punjab 54-4 (Maxwell 6, Miller 1)
Ashwin bows a bit short and slightly wide, and Gurkeerat Singh cuts late and well to deep backward point, but then he’s out next ball, prompting a strategic time out. Miller comes in – he’s averaged 34.60 in the IPL this year, over 10 more than any other Kings XI batsman (and over 20 more than Maxwell).
WICKET! Gurkeerat Singh st Dhoni b Ashwin 15 (Kings XI 53-4)
Another wicket falls, Gurkeerat trying to follow a four with a six, missing the ball and finding himself stranded.
8th over: Kings XI Punjab 48-3 (Maxwell 6, Gurkeerat 11)
Nehra continues, and Gurkeerat sends the ball to mid on, just a gentle push, but the ball races away to the rope. Maxwell, meanwhile, continues to feel his way into this innings – both batsmen have faced 11 deliveries so far.
7th over: Kings XI Punjab 43-3 (Maxwell 6, Gurkeerat 6)
Kings XI have lost 32 wickets in the opening six-over powerplay – no other team has lost more than 20. That’s a huge, massive, epic fail right there, and goes a long way to explaining their miserable position in the table. Ashwin bowls, and each batsman takes a single.
6th over: Kings XI Punjab 41-3 (Maxwell 5, Gurkeerat 5)
This is not going well for Kings XI, who can’t keep surrendering top-order wickets cheaply every other over and hope to come out of this or any game with anything other than a whupping. Still, the over ends considerably better than it started, with Gurkeerat Singh smacking low through the covers for four.
WICKET! Vohra c Nehra b Pandey 4 (Kings XI 35-3)
The first ball of over five brought a wicket, and the first ball of over six brings another – and Ashish Nehra was a key figure in both of them! This time Pandey bowls a widish delivery and Vohra spears in the air to third man, where Nehra takes the catch.
5th over: Kings XI Punjab 35-2 (Vohra 4, Maxwell 4)
In comes Maxwell, who in this year’s IPL has been less silver hammer and more feather duster. Four balls, no runs and a wicket into the over he smacks through midwicket with absolute comfort for four.
Updated
WICKET! Bailey c Dhoni b Nehra 12 (Kings XI 31-2)
Ashish Nehra comes on, and strikes first ball! Bailey edges through to Dhoni, who takes a good low catch.
Nehra strikes first delivery! Bailey was looking dangerous. He walks back! Good catch by the Skipper! #CSK #IdhuNammaSeason #whistlepodu
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) May 16, 2015
4th over: Kings XI Punjab 31-1 (Vohra 4, Bailey 12)
Bailey thumps the first ball through midwicket for four, and Pandey’s second delivery is short and wide but the Kings XI captain picks out McCullum at cover. The third also picks out a fielder – Jadeja at backward point – but he misjudges its path, lets it run through his hands and into a grounded knee. Consensus, as he rolls about a bit, is that it probably hurt.
3rd over: Kings XI Punjab 24-1 (Vohra 2, Bailey 7)
Bailey comes in, and doesn’t hang around – his first delivery rumbles to short fine leg for a couple, and then he spins to tweak his second to long leg for four.
WICKET! Saha c McCullum b Negi 15 (Kings XI Punjab 16-1)
Negi gets the ball to spin, and it moves away from the batsman, who finds himself stretching to make contact and clips it with the toe end of his bat into the air and down the throat of McCullum at cover!
2nd over: Kings XI Punjab 14-0 (Saha 13, Vohra 1)
Ishwar Pandey get the ball rolling – and, indeed, flying – from the other end. There are a couple of dots, followed by a couple of dabs to third man, and then Saha smites one over square leg for six!
1st over: Kings XI Punjab 5-0 (Saha 5, Vohra 0)
It’s spin from the start, Pawan Negi opening the bowling. He starts with three dots, but then drops one short and wide and Saha smacks it through the covers for four. Looks like a glorious day in Chandigarh, and ball zips like lightning over the outfield when give a bit of welly.
The players are out, action about to get under way. Deep breath now …
This is Brendon McCullum’s final match for Chennai Super Kings, before he jets off to England to play Test cricket for New Zealand.
Let us give a Super Farewell for our flying Kiwi, Brendon 'Baz' McCullum! Right Lions? #CSK #IdhuNammaSeason #whistlepodu
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) May 16, 2015
Chennai Super Kings have batted first in their last four matches, and haven’t won batting second since 22 April, eight matches ago.
Kings XI Punjab are bottom of the table and doomed to remain there. Chennai Super Kings are top, despite a dodgy record on their travels, and will want to finish top to secure the easiest possible route through the play-offs.
So Kings XI are unchanged. Chennai Super Kings bring in Michael Hussey and Ashish Nehra for Dwayne Smith and Mohit Sharma.
The teams look like this:
KXIP XI: M Vohra, W Saha, G Maxwell, G Bailey, D Miller, GM Singh, A Patel, R Dhawan, B Hendricks, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma #KXIPvCSK
— Kings XI Punjab (@lionsdenkxip) May 16, 2015
CSK XI: B McCullum, M Hussey, S Raina, F du Plessis, MS Dhoni, R Jadeja, DJ Bravo, P Negi, R Ashwin, A Nehra, I Pandey #KXIPvCSK
— Kings XI Punjab (@lionsdenkxip) May 16, 2015
Hello world!
So, the briefest of pre-match updates: Kings XI Punjab have won the toss and will bat first!
