After winning the toss, the KL Rahul-led franchise chose to bat first.
Famous for assisting spinners and pacers with speed variations, the Chepauk pitch played true to its nature. Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent Rahul back to the pavilion in the first ball of the fourth over when in an attempt to accelerate the innings, the Punjab skipper gave an easy catch to Kedar Jadhav.
Another spectacular catch was taken by the leg-spinner Rashid Khan.
The incident happened in the final ball of the seventh over when Rashid was stationed at short mid-wicket. Khaleel Ahmed bowled a back-off length delivery to Mayank Agarwal. Trying to go over the top, the opener played a pull shot, but the slow off-cutter deceived Agarwal, who mistimed it.
Rashid couldn’t anticipate the ball and dived in the wrong direction, but at last, his hands stuck to the white leather before it could bounce on the grass, and hence he grabbed a brilliant low catch.
Here’s the video:
With this catch, the dangerous Punjab batsman had to depart early at a low individual score of 25. Rashid had earlier dropped the swashbuckling opener at deep mid-wicket, and thus with this catch, the 22-year-old completed his redemption.
Meanwhile, PBKS were bundled out for 120 runs on board. Rashid bowled an economical spell, giving 17 runs in his four overs and taking the precious wicket of Chris Gayle.
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