Match Center

Right then, that is it from this one-sided affair where Chennai gets their second win while Gujarat will need to come back stronger in the next game. Next up in the Indian T20 League is the battle between two teams who are searching for their first points. It will be Hyderabad taking on Mumbai on 27th March, Wednesday at 7.30 pm IST (2 pm GMT), but as you know, you can always join us early for all the build-up to the game. Until then, cheers and goodbye!

Shivam Dube is the PLAYER OF THE MATCH for his terrific knock. He says that this team allows him to express himself freely. Adds that he loves the franchise and wants to keep winning games for them. Tells that he knows that the bowlers will bowl short to him and he has worked on it. Ends by saying that his role is to bat at a higher strike-rate and that is exactly what he did in this game.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, the victorious skipper of Chennai starts by saying that it was a near-perfect contest and to beating a team like Gujarat by such a huge margin is a big positive. Appreciates Rachin Ravindra who played a fantastic innings along with Shivam Dube and lauds the little cameo from Sameer Rizvi. Adds that having someone like MS Dhoni is a huge luxury. He says he is quite impressed with the way they fielded and goes on to appreciate Ajinkya Rahane and says that he is a fantastic fielder and even in the previous game, he took a brilliant catch. Ends up by saying that he hopes the team to do well in the upcoming games.

Shubman Gill, the captain of Gujarat says that Chennai outplayed them. Says they executed well in the bowling. Adds they did not get the desired start and kept losing wickets regularly and had a very poor Powerplay. States that they were expecting the target to be in the range of 190–200. He further adds that the wicket was hard and there was a nice grass covering as well but mentions that they let themselves down in the batting. Ends up by saying that it is a good learning experience.

Presentation Time...

Deepak Chahar is down for a quick chat. He begins by saying that he is tasked to bowl at least three overs inside the Powerplay and the two-bounce rule is helping him as a bowler to adjust his length more precisely and keeps the batters guessing. He adds that there's very minimal dew and the ball grips and also gets a good bounce as well. Appreciates Ruturaj Gaikwad and says that he is doing really well as a leader.

Earlier in the game, Chennai posted a massive total on the board courtesy of a blazing fifty from Shivam Dube along with a couple of excellent 40s from skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra. Daryl Mitchell and Sameer Rizvi also played nice little cameos towards the end. Gujarat bowlers were a bit expensive but Rashid Khan managed to pick up a couple of wickets while Mohit Sharma, Spencer Johnson, and Sai Kishore chipped in with one each. While chasing, after losing their captain early, they never really recovered from that and tasted their biggest defeat in terms of runs in this competition.

Chennai, on the other hand, will be really happy with their bowling effort. Despite going for some runs in the first couple of overs, Deepak Chahar provided a big breakthrough by getting rid of Shubman Gill which set the tone for them. It was him again who got rid of Wriddhiman Saha while the decision to give the ball to Daryl Mitchell worked as he dismissed Vijay Shankar, but credit also goes to MS Dhoni for an outstanding catch. The hosts never really allowed the opposition to get back in the game and kept picking up wickets at regular intervals. Their fielding and catching were brilliant as well except for one blemish from Ravindra. Gaikwad was really good at using his bowling resources effectively. Mustafizur Rahman and Tushar Deshpande were brilliant at death picking up a couple of wickets each while Matheesha Pathirana also chipped in with one in the end.

Gujarat needed a quick start chasing this big total and were going at a good rate till the third over where they lost their skipper Shubman Gill which put them under a lot of pressure. Wriddhiman Saha did play a few lusty blows but he too was dismissed on the very next delivery after getting hit on his helmet. Vijay Shankar too could not make much of an impact in this game. Sai Sudharsan had to play anchor and along with David Miller steadied the ship for a bit. However, with the required rate creeping up, Miller lost his wicket which shifted the momentum completely. After that, the wickets fell like nine pins as they went from 96/3 to 121/7. The tail huffed and puffed to their way to 143/8 ultimately losing this game by a big margin of 63 runs.

CHENNAI MAKES IT TWO IN TWO! A complete performance from the home side from start to finish and once again, they look like one of the top contenders this season. Gujarat lost for the first time against Chennai in the league stages of this competition, and the trend of hosts winning games this season extends to seven games now.

Done and dusted! Chennai win clinically and humble Gujarat by 63 runs. Matheesha Pathirana bowls it outside off on a hard length, Umesh Yadav swings his bat hard and misses as the ball passes his outside edge through to MS Dhoni. This has been a sheer dominating performance by Chennai and they hold their fortress unbreached yet again. Also, this is the biggest defeat for Gujarat by the margin of runs.

SIX! Some fun for Umesh Yadav! Matheesha Pathirana offers a half-volley, slightly outside off, Umesh Yadav gets underneath the ball and swings hard at it with a good connection before thumping it over mid-wicket for a biggie.

Short and on the top of off, Spencer Johnson pulls it towards deep mid-wicket for a single.

A slower yorker outside off, Spencer Johnson shoulders arms at it. The Umpire calls it a fair delivery.

Short and pace off this time, outside off, on a length, Umesh Yadav cuts it through point for a single.

Over the wicket comes Pathirana and fires in on the back of a length outside off, Umesh Yadav swings hard but misses on the outside edge.

On the back of a length around off, Spencer Johnson sways away from the line of the ball and cuts it but finds the fielder at backward point. End of another successful over for Chennai.