CSK and MS Dhoni win 4th IPL title after beating KKR by 27 runs in see-saw final

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday won their fourth IPL title as MS Dhoni & co beat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by a big margin of 27 runs. MS Dhoni became only the second skipper after Rohit Sharma to lead a side to more than three IPL titles. KKR suffered a dramatic collapse after an impressive partnership between Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer, going down from 91-1 to 123-7. KKR's middle-order failed to perform yet again as no batter could touch the double-digit mark. 

While Gill and Iyer both scored a half-century each, none of the other KKR batters got going as they fell for less than 17 runs between them. Gill and Iyer were dismissed by Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur respectively. Thakur struck again as he removed Nitish Rana for a duck. Sunil Narine was promoted up the order by his team but failed to fire and was dismissed by Hazlewood for 2 runs. KKR skipper Eoin Morgan scored 4 off 8 balls before being dismissed by Hazlewood. Dinesh Karthik went for 9 as he was dismissed by Jadeja.

Fast-bowler Shivam Mavi scored more runs than KKR's middle-order batters as he hit 20 off 13 balls before being dismissed by Dwayne Bravo. While Thakur picked three wickets, Jadeja and Hazlewood finished with two each. Chahar and Bravo also picked 1 wicket each in the game. 

IPL 2021 Final: CSK beat KKR 

Earlier in the match, CSK posted a mammoth total of 192 runs in 20 overs at the loss of 3 wickets. CSK openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis provided a solid start as they forged yet another 50-rn partnership. Gaikwad hit 32 off 27 balls before he was dismissed by Sunil Narine. Du Plessis, on the other hand, scored an impressive half-century as Robin Uthappa joined him in the middle after Gaikwad's dismissal. 

Uthappa scored a quickfire 31 off 15 balls before being removed by Narine. Moeen Ali then joined Du Plessis in the middle and finished the innings for CSK with a cameo of 37 off 20 balls. Du Plessis was eventually dismissed by Shivam Mavi off the final ball of the innings. Du Plessis scored 86 off 59 balls. including 3 sixes and 7 boundaries. Lockie Ferguson and Shakib Al Hassan were the most expensive bowlers for KKR as they went for 56 and 33 runs, respectively. 

Image: PTI/IPL/Twitter