Chennai Super Kings regained some lost ground in the 2020 Indian Premier League on Sunday when they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 8 wickets at Dubai International Stadium. They had the slightest chance of making the IPL playoffs and the CSK players gave their best on Sunday. CSK bowlers restricted RCB batsmen to just 145 runs with Virat Kohli able to score fifty. Then Ruturaj Gaikwad broke 65 runs for CSK to lead them to victory in 18.4 overs.
However, the weakest of CSK’s hopes was also dashed on Sunday. For CSK to qualify, these were the conditions before Sunday:
1. Kolkata Knight Riders (must lose all remaining games)
2. Kings XI Punjab (need to beat KKR on Monday, lose their other 2 matches)
3. Sunrisers Hyderabad (needs to lose at least 1 of their next 2 matches and by a large margin (s)
4. Rajasthan Royals (need to beat KXIP and KKR and lose to IM by a large margin)
But with RR winning against MI on Sunday, CSK is officially out of the 2020 IPL top 4 race. This will be the first time MS Dhoni led CSK has failed to break into the top four of the Indian Premier League.
Gaikwad was not left out with 65, as he and Ambati Rayudu added 67 runs for the second wicket to set up CSK’s victory chasing 146. MS Dhoni hit three limits before Gaikwad finished things off with a six. As the chase began, Faf Du Plessis and Gaikwad added 46 quick runs in the first five overs to give CSK a quick start. RCB finished their innings at 145/6.
They scored just 20 runs in the final three overs with Deepak Chahar and Sam Curram combining to share five wickets. Virat Kohli scored half a century and broke his 200 six in the IPL when he and AB de Villiers added 82 runs for RCB’s third wicket.
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