Live Blog - PBKS collapse gives CSK hope

Punjab Kings showcased their very best and their very worst selves all in the course of about 45 minutes and in the end the bad outweighed the good as they lost to Chennai Super Kings by 28 runs.

Sam Curran's men had dominated proceedings right from the toss. A target of 168 should've been well within their reach, especially when they were strung together a period of play where they hit six boundaries in 18 balls between the fifth and the seventh overs.

The equation at that point was 112 off 78 with eight wickets in hand. This was not the time to collapse but collapse they did, losing both their set batters, their captain and their finisher. They tumbled from 62 for 2 to 78 for 7.

They need 56 off 18 balls with Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar at the crease. Usually they're a winning combo with the ball in hand, but with the bat? If they pull this off, it'll be one for the ages. Nope. Chahar has been bowled giving up his stumps and looking to scoop Shardul Thakur.

At first, Ashutosh Singh survived a dropped catch. It was straight in and straight out. There can't be much defense here. Moeen's missed a dolly.

CSK were building tons of pressure. In that same over, Ashutosh was hit pretty close to the groin as Simarjeet Singh kept getting seam movement off the pitch. He had him playing and missing as well, and once again it's a bowler hitting the short of a good length area that's creating all of this chaos.

CSK might have been feeling aggrieved about all this but the very next ball, Ravindra Jadeja manages to get rid of Sam Curran. And as that over progresses, he gets rid of Ashutosh too.

Once more, I ask, what sort of nonsense game is this? PBKS were 62 for 2. They are now 78 for 7

Ashutosh Sharma, meanwhile, is working things well here. He understands he is the last recognised batter and that PBKS need to shave off a lot of this target first before they start playing the big shots again. He has, however, been hit on the body twice by the pace of Simarjeet Singh.

What kind of nonsense game is this?

CSK's innings went through a weird progression and now its PBKS' turn.

They were running away with the game as stated before with six boundaries in 18 balls. That brought the equation down to 112 off 78. But the next eighth, ninth and tenth overs result in two wickets. Including the set batters'.

His 14th wicket in five years for CSK. Shashank Singh is gone, looking to clear the long straight boundary.

The PBKS captain Sam Curran, who has stepped up really well in Shikhar Dhawan's absence, and is part of the reason this team is trending upwards for a place in the playoffs, is out there to shepherd the rest of this chase.

Left-hander against CSK's left-arm spinners.

PBKS do not let go of any opportunity to attack. Even when they seem second best, they find a way to access the boundary, like Prabhsimran Singh did when Deshpande went into the wicket - which is the area where there is some help on offer - and despite the ball coming in and cramping him for room, and giving him no way out, he holds his shape and plays the ramp and with point and third inside the circle it's an easy boundary. That prompts Deshpande to go full, which isn't the best length to bowl on this pitch, and he gets smashed.

I think I'm being forced to change my mind about this pitch, just as Harshal Patel had to earlier.

The new ball is decking about. Deshpande's second over had three plays and misses, and also one crunching hit for four.

The difference is the length. The four was a fuller ball. The others were a touch short of a good length and hitting that spot is giving the bowler extra bounce and that allied with his own skill to get seam movement is making things difficult out there.

168 is still the kind of target batting teams will fancy getting even if they wobble. Because every bowling in opposition needs to be perfect to defend that kind of total. New recruit Richard Gleeson isn't.

Goes clean through Jonny Bairstow who plays all around a straight delivery. That's the early wicket CSK were desperate for. But they can't stop now. Punjab Kings' strength lies in the middle order with Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma in particular showing great mettle all through the season. They're going to have to test them by making them play a lot more deliveries than they're used to

Double wicket over! This one was a peach. It is angled across the left-handed Rilee Rossouw from over the wicket, but when it pitches, it holds its line and almost hurries the batter up. Incredible work. Sometime after the toss was done, there were visuals of Deshpande with the fourth umpire and a box of balls. Usually, your senior bowler picks the ball that they will work with for the game. Think Jimmy Anderson or Jasprit Bumrah. Deshpande started as a net bowler with CSK. To rise up as high as he has, it's special.

CSK bought Mitchell Santner in 2018. He played his first IPL game in 2019. It is five years later now. Today is only his 16th game for the franchise. Starts off well though, cramping the two right-handers with his high-pace, flat-trajectory darts that rarely ever stray leg side.

Harshal Patel in his first four matches
2 for 47, 1 for 45, 0 for 45 and 1 for 44.

Harshal Patel in his next seven matches
2 for 30, 1 for 21, 3 for 31, 3 for 15, 1 for 48, 0 for 12 and 3 for 24

In the mid-innings interview, he says he might have misjudged the pitch. He thought there were a lot more runs in it but as they began to bowl on it, they realised two things - the dry square was helping the ball reverse and when they went into the wicket with their short ones, it wasn't coming into the bat.

Dharamsala roared when he took out Shardul Thakur because that meant MS Dhoni would be walking out.

Then Dharamsala goes silent because Harshal bowls the same ball and it does the same thing.

Deceive the batter for lack of pace.

Dip under his bat-swing because of all the revs.

And cuh-lean bowl him.

Dhoni gone for a first ball duck

This final over from Chahar has changed things though. His economy rate is now at 8.15, but that still puts him among the top-10 most misery spinners in IPL 2024

That's a symptom of having to bowl to left-handers a lot, and looking to always spin it away from them, to keep it away from their hitting arc. That's really good defensive bowling.

Just in case anyone's wondering, this looks a good pitch. There's good bounce. There's a hint of turn. Batters have been able to hit through the line. The problem for CSK is they're ticking every box that you shouldn't tick in a batting innings in T20 cricket.

They lost a wicket in the powerplay. Then just as they were recovering - backing up overs that went for 19 and 9 runs - they lost three wickets in 11 balls. Then just as they were recovering from that - backing up overs that went for 11 and 9 runs - they lost another wicket.

It's credit to Sam Curran the PBKS captain because he trusted Rahul Chahar to bowl to Ruturaj Gaikwad who took apart his other spinner. That yielded two wickets. Now he's off the attack and may once again be paired with MS Dhoni when he comes out to bat.

Curran's taken a wicket too, dismissing Moeen Ali with a short ball, which has always been a little bit of a weakness for him. PBKS have done really well, and things have gone their way too. For example, the Mitchell wicket with the ball staying low.

CSK's batting is filled with people who can see off all 20 overs. Moeen Ali, whom they haven't favoured this season, is actually a good man to have out there. He has the gift of timing so even his orthodox shots - or to put it differently, his riskless shots - find the boundary.

CSK need to play riskless cricket right now, but in Moeen, they have a guy who can up the ante playing that way. He shows all that with an effortless little cut shot to which point got a strong hand but still wasn't enough to prevent it from going to the boundary.

The problem with Moeen though is that once he feels like he can go, he keeps going every ball and often enough he mis-hits one - or even just nails one straight to the fielder. This time he's done by Sam Curran and his back-of-the-hand bouncer.

Just before bowling that ball, Curran was seen signing to the dugout maybe? Asking if he should go slower ball.

Daryl Mitchell is having rotten luck this IPL season. He's had to shuttle up and down the order, which isn't ideal when you're in a new team at a tough tournament. The lack of stability can be a bit unsettling. It's strange that CSK, who are known to set their players up for success, have missed a trick here. Mitchell is at his most dangerous when he can bank on spending some time at the crease. Not when he has to go out and start hitting immediately.

There have been moments. Even today he hit a six to a ball that was still rising from Arshdeep Singh. Somehow he got up on his tip-toes, used all of his height, and smashed it over wide long-off. Having faced that, and logging in that this pitch has a little more bounce on it, he ends up lbw to a Harshal Patel short delivery that scoots through very low.

Mitchell went for the review immediately, believing that it would be missing leg stump, but he should know better. This really hasn't been his season. In the last game, he was treated like a tail-ender, MS Dhoni refusing to give him the strike, and him having to run a two to save himself from being run-out at the bowler's end. Here the lbw shout goes against him with ball-tracking showing that it will shave the outsidest edge of the leg stump

PBKS' wrist spinner fares a lot better with his first over. Might have had something to do with how he has five men on the boundary now. Rahul Chahar takes out Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shivam Dube in successive deliveries. That means Shivam Dube, CSK's designated spin-hitter, has bagged back-to-back ducks facing spin. A touch more bounce in Dharamsala, which comes into play as both batters go for the cut shot and nick off to the keeper.

This is usually how they like to play. They see what what's and then they go bang bang. The problem is, they haven't been able to accelerate through the innings. They have a run-rate of 8.57 in the middle overs (7-16). Only Gujarat Titans have been scoring their runs slower.

In Chennai, Harpreet Brar completed all four of his overs and gave away just 17 runs. Here, on a very different kind of pitch, he's been smashed for 19 in just one over.

Breaking news: Chennai Super Kings pacer Matheesha Pathirana is nursing a hamstring injury and will be returning to Sri Lanka for further recovery. The right-arm pacer played six matches in IPL 2024 picking up 13 wickets at an economy of 7.68. Chennai Super Kings wishes Pathirana a quick recovery.

Ajinkya Rahane was a batter transformed last season at CSK simply because he seemed to be more inclined to hit the ball in the air. There have often been occasions where he sees a length ball on off stump and instead of just blocking it, he plants his front foot forward and just a touch out of the way, and swings through the line targeting the mid-on and midwicket. Once he was even captured scooping the ball. I'm not even joking.

He showcased that kind of intent right at the start of his innings, which may have been necessary because he was batting one drop. Now, as opener, with the entire 20 overs in front of him, and the damage that early wickets pose to the innings, he seems to have reverted to the old ways. He's also had a calf niggle to deal with. Arshdeep Singh takes him out now with an attempted inswinging yorker. That's his fifth score of 15 or fewer. He has only three over 30.

Sam Curran says its the same team and he's bowling because its a day game, inferring that conditions get better to bat in the evening. Plus fielding right now in Dharamsala shouldn't be a problem. The temps are waaaay better than other places in the country.

Gaikwad says Mitchell Santner is playing in place of Mustafizur Rahman and mentions no other changes. Still no Pathirana then. He takes a little bit of pride in the fact that despite his wretched luck with the toss, they have won five of those games.

Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali, MS Dhoni (wk), Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Richard Gleeson

Subs: Sameer Rizvi, Mukesh Choudhary, Simarjeet Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Prashant Solanki

Punjab Kings: Jonny Bairstow, Rilee Rossouw, Shashank Singh, Sam Curran (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh

Subs: Prabhsimran Singh, Harpreet Bhatia, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Rishi Dhawan

On an entirely unrelated note, but also not really because there are so many cricket fans who are also Star Wars fans, I hope y'all had a good May the 4th.

Has a random building in New York given us the second greatest Darth Vader scene ever (after the one in Rogue One?)No wait. THAT IS THE SCENE FROM ROGUE ONE!