The 3rd match of IPL 7 has been kicked off at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. A high scoring match was played between the one of the most heavyweight and brand new team KINGS XI PUNJAB and the most consistent team CHENNAI SUPER KINGS in which KXIP won by 6 wickets.
The battle of the toss was won by CSK and they elected to bat first. It was CSK’s 100th Match in IPL History as well as Suresh Raina’s too. Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum turned out to be a great pick for CSK as they opened the batting with an explosive partnership of 123 runs in just 76 balls. The temperature was even high at Sheikh Zayed Stadium as McCullum and Smith scored 67 runs of 45 balls and 66 runs of 43 balls respectively as well as Chennai got the record of the best powerplay score of 70 runs in IPL. However, Raina(24 of 19 balls) , Dhoni (26 of 11 balls) and Bravo (8 of 3 balls) finished the innings for CSK in a great style as they scored 205 runs by just losing 4 wickets. 2 of the 4 wickets were shared by Parvinder Awana and Akshar Patel equally and other 2 wickets were picked by Lakshmipathy Balaji but Mitchell Johnson was failed to give the performance of his class as he considered 47 runs in his 4 overs picking no wicket.
In Reply, Kings XI Punjab started their innings quite badly as Virender Sehwag (19 of 10balls), Cheteshwar Pujara (13 of 10 balls), Akshar Patel (2 of 3 balls) went early. However, Glenn Maxwell “The Maximum” (95 runs of 43 balls) and David Miller “The Killer” (54* runs of 37 balls) made an outstanding and match winning partnership of 115 runs in just 63 balls to repair the loss of early wickets. After that George Bailey (C) (17 of 10 balls) and Miller did the rest of the job for Kings XI Punjab putting all the efforts of McCullum and Smith in vain. KXIP scored 206 runs with one ball left in the 19th over. Ravichandran Ashwin took two wickets considering 41 runs.
Yes Bank Maximum Sixes Award was given to Brendon McCullum and the
Kanna Keep Calm Award was given to Glenn Maxwell as well as the Man of The Match Award too.