MS Dhoni’s face hardly betrays emotion. Else, it would all be a mea culpa of a dropped catch. Dropping in-form batsman Venkatesh Iyer, who has played a key role behind KKR upsurge in UAE, nought seen to be a very costly mistake against the victory target of 193. Also, Shubman Gill got a spider cam-wire reprieve when Chennai Super Kings was looking for a breakthrough. It was like the lady luck with KKR in the IPL 2021 final.
Chennai Super Kings had already put a 193 score in the IPL final which was enough to put pressure on Kolkata Knight Riders. Venkatesh Iyer got out after scoring 50 runs off 32 balls. After this, CSK managed to keep the pressure on and was pretty comfortable in the end. This has been a story of a stirring comeback of the so-called ‘Dad’s Army’ which was written off after last season.
The KKR opening pair, Iyer and Gill, was undaunted. KKR openers reached a 50-runs partnership in the sixth over and KKR had raced to 88 for no loss after 10. Then, Venkatesh Iyer tried to send a Shardul delivery into the fence but mistimed it and Jadeja took one of the finest catches of the tournament.
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After this, KKR altered their batting order due to Rahul Tripathi’s hamstring injury. KKR were always up with a 10-plus required run rate and also the captain Eoin Morgan woefully out of form was a concern.
During the match, Ravindra Jadeja took some finest catch. He took a brilliant catch of Narine when he tried to take charge of Josh Hazlewood and it looked to have enough meet to go over the boundary.
Shardul finished with 3/38 to take his tournament tally to 21 wickets.
