As it happened - Chennai Super Kings vs Punjab Kings, IPL 2021, Dubai

Game over for CSK

Punjab Kings 139 for 4 in 13 overs; Rahul 98 off 42, Thakur 3 for 28

Chennai Super Kings do not have the bowlers for flat conditions. And here's proof that these really are flat conditions. A target of 134 was never going to stand up to scrutiny here.

Especially with Rahul playing no-holds barred cricket- 98 not out in an innings of 139. Forty-two balls faced. Seven fours. Eight sixes. Against a player going like this, you need a 150kph fast bowler or a mystery spinner. Failing that, you need the experience of a man like Dwayne Bravo, who's been bowling around the wicket and attacking the batter's hips and chest.

Hiding the ball works too, wide outside off stump. Bhuvneshwar Kumar won a game recently against AB de Villiers with that tactic, even though he ended up bowling two full tosses.

Punjab Kings have demolished Super Kings with six wickets and 42 balls to spare. Over to you, KKR.

Fifty for Rahul

Punjab Kings 71 for 2 in eight overs; Rahul 51 off 26, Shahrukh 7 off 7

And it's come off only 25 balls. This is the Rahul everybody wants to see. The one who sees ball, hits ball.

Punjab's season is probably done. There are too many permutations to worry about. Rahul will finish up here today as the top-scorer in IPL 2021 and he'll move into the T20 World Cup as high on confidence as he has ever been in his career.

He played a huge part in India winning two Tests on their recent tour of England. And he will be a key player as they try to win their second T20 championship. It's funny - one of those triumphs was set up by restraint, the other, if it happens, will be by a complete lack of it.

India have long relied on building an innings slowly. But they've realised that doesn't work when you have to go up against teams like England and West Indies who go hard from ball one. They've now picked players like Rahul and Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav (the latter two's recent form notwithstanding) who are capable of scoring big right from the get go.

Lord Thakur

Punjab Kings 46 for 2 in 5 overs; Rahul 33 off 15, Sarfaraz 0 off 2

At the other end, a player on a hot streak just like Rahul comes on and he picks up two wickets in an over. Shardul Thakur traps Mayank Agarwal lbw. There was a long discussion between both players about the DRS. Agarwal was pinned after walking a long way across his stumps and that's the reason they don't take the review. Rahul suggests not to.

Replays indicate they should have with ball-tracking showing it would have missed leg stump. Three balls later, Sarfaraz Khan is knocked out for a duck

Rahul vs Hazlewood began with a hit on the batter's head. Battle lines drawn.

The next Hazlewood over is all high octane as well with Rahul going 4, 4, 0, 6. He really is a confident player of fast bowling in limited-overs cricket. And in this innings, with his team needing to finish this game in 10-11 overs, his natural game is shining through. No need to drop anchor. No need to worry about the middle order. Just go hard. Just go big.

Rahul is now the most prolific batter for the Punjab franchise, going past Shaun Marsh's 2477.

Rahul hit on the head

Punjab Kings 13 for 0 in 2 overs; Rahul 10 off 7, Agarwal 2 off 5

It's a short ball. And Rahul's good at playing those. Even so, Josh Hazlewood has summoned enough pace and bounce off this Dubai pitch to secure a top edge that careens into the batter's helmet.

There's noticeable swelling on Rahul's forehead, presumably as a result of the shock from he helmet wobbling about all over the place.

It hasn't affected his strokeplay though. Rahul begins the next (third) over from Deepak Chahar with a six over backward square leg. He's already the sixiest batter in the IPL and he's now running away with it.

The UAE leg has tended to force teams to take the initiative within the powerplay with pitches at all three ground slowing down quite considerably after the first six overs. The Kings will know that and they have an excellent, in-form pair out there to take advantage.

Our stats wiz Shiva Jayaraman says: Let's say Punjab chase down a target in the vicinity of 120-130 in 10 overs, they will still need KKR to lose their match by 51-52 runs to beat them on NRR. MI losing their game is pre-condition to their qualifying and NRR won't matter then (as in MI will be below Punjab's NRR automatically)

Du Plessis fifty

Super Kings 134 for 6; du Plessis 76 off 55, Jordan 2-20

A typical Faf du Plessis innings has a lot of boundaries. 316 of all his 529 runs in this IPL have come from hits to the fence. That's 60%. In this innings though, he's hit only five fours. When he brought up his fifty, off 46 balls, with a single to long-off, he simply slumped over his bat, breathing heavily. It's been a tough go out there for him. Not least because his team-mates at the other end kept following each other to the pavilion.

Du Plessis made 76 of his team's 128 runs while he was out in the middle. Since reaching fifty, he hit three fours and two sixes in just nine balls. #OneManArmy. But have CSK got enough of a score on the board?

Kings outskill Super Kings

Super Kings 86 for 5 in 16 overs; du Plessis 40 off 39, Jadeja 10 off 11

This is a good pitch. It's got pace. The bounce is even. The ball is coming onto the bat. Ideally this should be a 180 plays 180 game but it's not because the Punjab Kings bowlers, who have been brilliant all season, have once again shown their class.

Gaikwad - bounced out
Moeen - Nicked off
Uthappa - bounced out
Rayudu - caught in the deep
Dhoni - bamboozled

That's a scorecard that showcases how the bowlers' skill has risen above the conditions.

Ravindra Jadeja is one of CSK's best batters this season but he's often come in too late to influence the innings. Well that won't be the case today. CSK still have four overs to play and they need their finisher, big time.

All eyes on Dhoni

Super Kings 55 for 4 in 11 overs, du plessis 25 off 25, Dhoni 7 off 10

Teams are prepared for him now. They've seen that at 40, his reflexes are slower. Perhaps he has an inkling of it as well because he doesn't take as many risks as he used to.

People have picked that up and as a result Dhoni ends up facing a lot of spin early on in his innings. No pace on the ball combined with a batter who doesn't want to hit out equals a lot of quiet overs.

Prior to this match, Dhoni had charged down the crease only twice in the entire season. Today though he did it to the first ball of spin he faced. Then he did it again. And eventually he walloped his 10th ball of the innings, from leggie Ravi Bishnoi, for four over cover. Is that a sign? Oh well, it was fun to dream. Bishnoi castles Dhoni for 12 off 15.

The Jordan factor

Super Kings 42 for 4 in 8.3 overs; du Plessis 21 off 20, Dhoni 0 off 0

He was supposed to do his damage towards the end of the innings, but the new man in for Punjab Kings today, is all over the Super Kings top order.

Chris Jordan has been sharp. He hit speeds of 144 kph. His first wicket was off a short ball that got too big on Robin Uthappa. His second one is arguably bigger. Ambati Rayudu utterly nails the slash over point, but there's a man in the deep and he runs to his left to pick up a smart catch.

A sign of Jordan's confidence is that he had an extra fielder inside the circle in the ninth over. He knew he was feeling good. He knew he had the control. And now it's apparent in his figures: 1.3-0-6-2

Will Mo get back his mojo

Super Kings 32 for 3 in 7 overs; du Plessis 17 off 16, Rayudu 0 off 0

In the India leg of the IPL, Moeen Ali racked up 206 runs at a strike-rate of 157. At the time, he appeared to be a sign of a changed approach from CSK. A team that no longer wanted to bat safe and take matches deep but one that wanted to attack all through the innings. Moeen at No. 3 fits that role gloriously. He's a free-flowing batter, his timing can rival the very best, and if he's in a mood, look out!

In the UAE though, the story's been flipped. Moeen's made only 98 runs in seven innings, with a strike-rate of 108.

The problem with CSK's top order malfunctioning is that it opens up a middle order - Robin Uthappa (playing his second match this year), MS Dhoni (only 84 runs the whole season) - to problems they haven't been able to solve all season. And given we're pretty much in playoff season, even the smallest vulnerability can cost a team big.

Gaikwad gone

Super Kings 18 for 1 in 3.5 overs (Gaikwad 12, du Plessis 4)

Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad have contributed 44% of the Super Kings' runs this season, and even in the short time they've been at the crease today, their strengths have been apparent.

Du Plessis looks to dominate pace. He has already tried to go for a scoop shot and the innings was barely three overs old. Gaikwad meanwhile is exquisite against spin. His first boundary today was off slow left-armer Harpreet Brar, a dance down the track and a biff over the top.

What this means is CSK are in a good position to attack any kind of bowler.

But a good ball is a good ball and Arshdeep Singh produces one - a sharp bouncer, climbing up past Gaikwad's left shoulder. The batter goes for a hook, gets a top edge and is caught at midwicket.

Not too long from now he's going to front up as the West Indies vice-captain at the T20 World Cup. Normally he'd be an asset. A bulldozing left-hander at No. 3 or 4 with all the shots in the book and the smarts to invent one or two if needed.

In this IPL, however, he's been a bit of a liability, with a batting average of 7.72, the second-worst for any player in an edition. That's just unbelievably unbelievable.

Kings have finally set him aside, exchanging a batter for a bowler, so they wanted as many options as possible to restrict the Super Kings, which in turn suggests they were always going to try and chase in this game.

But this drop in form for Pooran. It's inexplicable. The man was lighting it up in the CPL but here, every time he put bat to ball, it resulted in a wicket.

They are assured of a place in the top two. Their openers are among the highest run-getters in the tournament. Their bowling attack is dove-tailing nicely. They are favourites to lift the trophy and now they're on this lovely little outing to the Dubai Cricket Stadium.

Meanwhile, it's all hands on deck at the Punjab Kings. They need to win today - by an obscene margin - to even have a chance of making the playoffs. It doesn't look good, but at least the coin falls their way. KL Rahul has won the toss and has decided to bowl first.

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Moeen Ali, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Robin Uthappa, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Dwayne Bravo, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Deepak Chahar, 11 Josh Hazlewood

Punjab Kings: 1 KL Rahul (capt & wk), 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Aiden Markram, 4 Sarfaraz Khan, 5 Shahrukh Khan, 6 Moises Henriques, 7 Chris Jordan, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Arshdeep Singh