Twitter Reactions: Ravindra Jadeja's batting assault in 19th over takes CSK home in the last ball thriller against KKR

Amazing! The IPL 2021 second leg is certainly livened up with back to back last ball thrillers. With 26 needed in the last two overs, KKR would’ve thought, they are winning it. But Ravindra Jadeja, the batsman, had other ideas who smacked 22 off just 8 balls. Even though Sunil Narine bowled a terrific last over, the 19th over was a game-changing one which had more or less done the job for CSK.

Earlier, Dinesh Karthik’s 11-ball 26-run cameo propelled KKR at the fag end of the innings. With Andre Russell not clicking as expected, they weren’t going anywhere in the death overs. However, coming out to bat in the 17th over, Karthik changed the momentum with his aggressive batting. He took apart Sam Curran in the 19th over smashing him for two fours and a six.

Curran had a bad start to his second leg with the ball conceding 56 runs in his four overs. Apart from Karthik, it was Rahul Tripathi who looked good in the middle. The fact that KKR scored runs at a faster pace despite losing Shubman Gill early was due to Tripathi who just continued from where he left off in the previous game.

Despite losing Iyer and Eoin Morgan, he continued to play his shots and looked set to play a big knock again. But when he was on 45, Ravindra Jadeja got the better of Tripathi who tried to reverse sweep the bowler and got beaten by pace only to see his off-stump disturbed. Nitish Rana, batting at new number five position after opening in the first leg, was rusty to start with.

But he didn’t throw his wicket away and remained unbeaten till the end. The southpaw didn’t middle most of the deliveries but churned out crucial boundaries along with Karthik. Rana stayed unbeaten on 37 off 27 balls in the end as KKR reached a decent score of 171 runs for the loss of six wickets after 20 overs.

CSK get over the line in the thriller

The run-chase started smoothly for CSK with their in-form openers Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad continuing to attack in the powerplay overs. Morgan opted for pace of Prasidh Krishna and Lockie Ferguson with the new ball and the move didn’t work for them. Du Plessis took full advantage of the full length deliveries playing soothing drives while Gaikwad was elegant as usual while playing his shots.

Andre Russell broke the 74-run partnership dismissing Gaikwad for 40. Moeen Ali was bombarded then with the short balls and after an uncomfortable start, he took on the bowling to score some quick runs. At the other end, Du Plessis was just rotating the strike but got out in the 12th over of Krishna with Ferguson taking a good catch in the deep.

Ambati Rayudu perished soon even as KKR managed to string some good overs together to bring the equation down to 40 runs from last four overs. Morgan had kept an over each of Narine and Chakravarthy and unleashed the latter in the crucial 18th over with 31 runs needed. And the move worked wonders with Chakravarthy castling MS Dhoni the ball after to change the game on its head.

Even a set Suresh Raina got run-out earlier in the over and with 30 needed from 15 balls, it seemed KKR’s match to lose at that point. It came down to 26 runs off last two overs and this is when Ravindra Jadeja came to the party. The southpaw’s brilliant hitting skills came to the fore with Prasidh Krishna missing his lines and yorkers, not even marginally.

And Jadeja was not going to miss. The left-hander turned the game on its head smashing two sixes and as many fours to make it four off the last over. But there was still one final twist left in the game. Sam Curran was holed out in the deep off the first ball after which Shardul Thakur scored three runs. However, Narine’s mystery kept Jadeja on the tenterhooks to bowl a dot ball and eventually got him lbw to make it a run needed from the last ball.

There was a possibility of a tie but Deepak Chahar had other ideas as he swept the bowler easily over the in-field to seal the thrilling game for CSK. This win more or less also sealed their playoff spot along with Delhi Capitals having won their eighth match of the season.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: