United CC vs Prague CC - Commentary

That's it from the coverage of this game, but the action in the Indian T20 League continues as Lucknow will be taking on Kolkata at 7.30 pm IST. This game is just about to start, so you switch tabs and enjoy the same. Until next time, take care and goodbye.

Ravindra Jadeja wins the Player of the Match award for his outstanding all-round performance. He starts by saying that the wicket was a bit slow as it was a day game, but they expected it due to the heat. States that he focused on building a partnership, but they could not really turn up with the bat in hand. Later, Tushar Deshpande set the tone with the new ball in hand, and it helped them a lot. Felt that they were 10-20 runs short, but is glad he could keep things tight with the ball in hand. States that sometimes they lose early wickets in the Powerplay, but whenever they win the match, they end up playing good cricket throughout the 20 overs.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, the victorious skipper is in for chat. He says that the wicket was slow and had low bounce but after the start they got they were looking at going for 180-200 run mark but with the loss of wickets it got difficult but the way the wicket played in the second innings it surely was a par score. Adds that with the bowling options they had so far, they just couldn't include Simarjeet and they did not opt for the impact batter which could have given them 10-15 runs more but stuck to their team. Mentions that with bowlers getting injured this was a big sigh of relief.

Stay tuned for the post-match presentation...

Tushar Deshpande is down for a quick chat. He says he is very happy and they wanted to win this game more than anyting else. Adds that in the previous game, luck didnt go his way and he was determined to do well at this venue which is high in altitude and there is some purchse for the bowlers. Mentions that the pitch was slow and was stopping a bit and horizontal bat shots were harder to play and they just backed their strengths and looked to bowl top of off line.

Sam Curran, the captain of Punjab says that they bowled really well as a group and the way Rahul bowled in the middle and Harshal finished off was special. Adds that he felt that it was a slow surface and that could be because this was a day game. Mentions that they will next play against Bengaluru after two days and this was not meant to go their way but they will go harder and look to do well.

One would say that Punjab were still in the game at the end of 8 overs when the third-wicket stand was broken, but after that they lost two more wickets in the next two overs and were teetering at 72/5 in 10 overs. After this, it was only Chennai that had all the fun. In the next 5 overs, Chennai went on to give only 19 runs for three wickets, this certainly helped them to put the game to bed. Chennai would've loved to end this early, but Punjab will take some pride in taking the game until the 20th over. Some late cameos from the tail-enders, allowed them to take some pride from this defeat. For Chennai, it was Simarjeet Singh and Ravindra Jadeja who bowled well in the middle overs and kept things tight for the opposition. Jadeja stood out with his three-wicket haul. Simarjeet Singh dominated with the ball and ended up with a brace.

Before coming into the run-chase, Punjab would've been delighted to not let Chennai get near the 180-run mark, they bowled as a unit, but could not replicate anything similar with the bat in hand. It just wasn't meant to be for them. They lost two wickets in the second over itself of the run chase. Courtesy of Tushar Deshpande who made an instant impact after coming into the side after a flu. Then came a healthy partnership between Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh of 53 runs which turns out to be the highest stand of this run chase as well. This is the real cause of their defeat, as no other batter could contribute significantly to get them over the line.

A valuable victory for Chennai away from home. They take two points from this game, but they would've been even more delighted if they were able to finish the game off a little early. Nevertheless, Chennai manage to jump to third in the points table from the fifth position. Punjab won the toss earlier, did well with the ball in hand as well to keep Chennai on an ideal avearge score in the first innings on this venue which is 167, but still they could not turn up with the bat here to do a double-over the Yellow Army.

Kagiso Rabada is the final man in.