Ruturaj Gaikwad scored his third consecutive half century, as Chennai Super Kings finished on a high by comprehensively defeating the Kings XI Punjab by 9 wickets at Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
CSK made 3 changes in the playing XI by including Faf Du Plessis, Imran Tahir and Shardul Thakur for Shane Watson, Santner and Karn Sharma, while KXIP dropped Maxwell, Arshdeep and included Neesham and Mayank Agarwal.
After being asked to bat first by Super Kings, Punjab openers started brilliantly with KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal adding 48 runs for the opening wicket, before the former was dismissed by Lungi Ngidi.
In the 9th over Mayank became Ngidi’s second victim as he was bowled for 26.
Shardul Thakur and Imran Tahir got into the act by removing Nicholas Pooran and Chris Gayle, leaving Punjab in a spot of bother at 72/4.
However Deepak Hooda smashed an unbeaten 62 off 30 balls, and picked up 40 runs in the final three overs to propel KXIP to a competitive score of 153 for 6 after 20 overs.
For Chennai Super Kings Lungi Ngidi was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/39.
Chasing 154, openers Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis added 82 runs for the opening wicket, before Chris Jordan dismissed Du Plessis for a well made 48.
The 23 year old Gaikwad and Ambati Rayudu put on an unbroken stand of 72 runs, as Chennai reached the target with 7 balls to spare.
Ruturaj Gaikwad was declared the Man of the Match.