It was madness at the Shiekh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi as KL Rahul put on a show which would be remembered for a long long time by both his fans and also the fans of Chennai Super Kings, who were basically bulldozed by the brilliance of one man.
Rahul, the skipper of Punjab Kings, was on the field to chase down the target of 135 in only 12.3 overs to get their net run rate in the positive and to have a really unrealistic but mathematical possibility of them qualifying for the Playoffs. The Punjab bowling unit had restricted Chennai Super Kings to 134 thanks to some brilliant bowling by Chris Jordan, Arshdeep Singh and Ravi Bishnoi.
When Rahul came to bat, he was not the usual self who starts ver slowly, rather he was on the kill right from the word go. The Karnataka man reached his fifty in just 25 balls and didn’t rest even after that. In the next 17 balls, he made 48 runs to give his team a chance to win in the required 12.3 overs.
However, due to his partner Aiden Markram getting out when nine runs were required of three balls and new man Moises Henriques taking the strike, ut became difficult to chase it down in the next two balls. But as soon as Rahul got the strike he hit a four and six to finish the game.
In total, Rahul has now made 626 runs in 13 innings with an average of 62.60 and a strike rate of 138. He currently holds the Orange Cap, for most runs in IPL 2021 and is 80 runs ahead of second-placed Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has also played 14 innings and will surely get at least one more inning to chase down Rahul, who might not get any more innings in this season.