England all-rounder Liam Livingstone starred for Punjab with a brutal knock of 60 followed up with a crucial 2-wicket haul to produce an all-round performance in his team’s big victory by 54 runs against defending champions Chennai, in the Match No 11 of the ongoing Indian T20 cricket league tournament on Sunday night.
After they were invited to bat first, Punjab stroked their way to a huge total of 180/8 in their 20 overs, and in reply, Chennai Super Kings were bowled out for a paltry 126 from 18 overs, thus losing their third consecutive match in the tournament and that too by a big margin which negatively affected their Net Run Rate.
Livingstone was severe on the Chennai bowlers on Sunday night at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, hammering as many as 5 sixes and 5 boundaries to score 60 from 32 balls, as his knock kept Punjab marching on towards a big total which threatened to cross the 200-run mark at one stage.
The assault from Livingstone was so severe that Chennai could not really celebrate breaking through the top order of the Punjab batting line-up, in which they had Mayank Agarwal dismissed by left-arm footballer Mukesh Chaudhary for 4 and the inform Sri Lankan batsman bank Rajapaksa for 9, who was run out.
The reason why Punjab were able to keep pressing on the gas pedal despite losing two of their key batsmen early on was because opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan and Livingstone took the attack to the opposition, and in the process added 95 runs from only 52 balls for the third wicket.
The senior India and Punjab batsman Dhawan, who is himself known for taking an aggressive approach with the bat piling up hundreds of runs in the tournament, was on Sunday happy playing second fiddle to Livingstone. The left-handed Dhawan finished at 33 from 24 balls with four boundaries and a six.
Livingstone was also given a lifeline by Ambati Rayudu who dropped a regulation catch at short third man off Ravindra Jadeja, as Chennai continued to struggle at the venue where they lost a high-scoring contest against Lucknow last week despite scoring 210 in the first innings.
The robust association between Dhawan and Livingstone was the only big partnership for Punjab, who were also served well by 31-run stand between Tamil Nadu hitter Shahrukh Khan and Jitesh Sharma, who played a brilliant knock of 26 from 17 balls with the help of 3 sixes in his maiden appearance in the competition.
Towards the end, tailend batsman Kagiso Rabada and Rahul Chahar both got identical scores of 12 as Punjab finished at a formidable 180/8, a total which was not entirely safe since dew factor has been extremely dominant in this Indian T20 cricket league season.
But a crucial step taken by the ground staff at the Brabourne Stadium ensured that there was not enough dew on the field, as they used an anti-dew agent named Apsa 80 — a spray which did not cause trouble for bowlers.
For Chennai, another England all-rounder Chris Jordan was the most impressive bowler with the figures of 4-0-23-2 whereas the South African Dwaine Pretorius was not too far behind, taking 2/30 from his four overs while the others in Mukesh Chaudhary, Dwayne Bravo and Chennai captain Ravindra Jadeja all claiming one wicket each.
Chennai made a shaky start to the chase losing Ruturaj Gaikwad for just 1 and No 3 batsman and England all-rounder Moeen Ali for a two-ball duck.
The matters became worse for the four-time winners Chennai as their in-form and senior batsmen Robin Uthappa and Ambati Rayudu both suffered collective failures, being dismissed for identical scores of 13 as the chasing team was left reeling at 36/5 after 7.3 overs.
This was when all-rounder Shivam Dube teamed up with former Chennai captain M Dhonii to help revive their side's position. Chennai were certainly boosted with a 62-run association between Dube and Dhonii, but the target kept moving beyond their reach with the asking rate also shooting up rapidly.
Chennai could not keep up with the asking rate and their lower-order batsmen could not chip in with runs. Chennai captain Jadeja was dismissed for a three-ball duck by Punjab pacer Arshdeep Singh, whereas Livingstone was instrumental in dealing body blows with the ball as well, accounting for Dube and Bravo, who fell for a first-ball duck.
Punjab deserved rich praise for not deviating from their core strategy of playing aggressive cricket in all departments in all situations, whereas Chennai are left to a point where they must go back to the drawing board and figure out which is their best strategy.
Chennai were victorious last season primarily because they had a game plan which they followed to the T, and did not get bogged down by any outside influence.
With the effective use of the chemical that kept the dew factor in control to a great extent, teams can be expected to come up with better plans and execution with a major problem addressed.
Chennai will next take on Hyderabad in the Match No 17 on April 9 whereas Punjab will look to build on their momentum when they face off with the formidable Gujarat in the match No 16 on April 8.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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