Chennai Super Kings, the three-time champions came back with a bang in the Indian Premier League, as they thumped the Kings XI Punjab by 10 wickets in Dubai on Sunday.
After electing to bat first, KXIP opening pair of KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal gave a fantastic start by adding 61 runs for the opening wicket, before Mayank was caught by Sam Curran off leg spinner Piyush Chawla for 26.
Mandeep Singh coming in place of Karun Nair in the playing XI scored a quickfire 27 before falling to Ravindra Jadeja.
Nicholas Pooran provided good support in the middle along with skipper Rahul with a 58 run stand for the third wicket, before both were dismissed in succession by Shardul Thakur for 33 & 63 respectively.
Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and Sarfaraz Khan added 26 runs off just 16 balls, as Kings XI ended up with a competitive 178/4 in their allotted 20 overs.
For Chennai Shardul Thakur took 2/39 ,while Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla claimed a wicket each.
Chasing 179, Shane Watson after a string of low scores, finally found form as he along with Faf du Plessis stitched a record breaking 181 run stand, as Chennai Super Kings reached the target with 14 balls to spare.
Watson scored 83 off just 53 balls, while Faf du Plessis made 87. This was Chennai’s first win after 3 consecutive defeats and second in five matches.
The victory took Dhoni’s side to sixth position in the IPL table.
Watson was declared the Man of the Match.