A young Chennai Super Kings fangirl was seen sobbing after Gujarat Titans seamer Mohit Sharma conceded only three runs in the first four balls of the 20th over.
The Dad’s Army needed 13 runs to win their fifth IPL title. Moments later, the same girl began jumping vigorously as soon as Ravindra Jadeja sealed the match with a six and a boundary off the last two balls of the IPL-16 final in the wee hours of Tuesday.
There were two game-changing moments in the rain-hit, truncated final played on the reserve day at the Narendra Modi Stadium. And Jadeja was involved in both.
First, he lured GT’s Shubman Gill to drive a quicker ball that turned away sharply for Dhoni to make a quicksilver stumping. Then came CSK’s winning moment when they needed 13 off the last over while chasing a target of 171 in a shortened innings of 15 overs after a two-hour rain stoppage.
Jadeja nullified Mohit Sharma’s brilliant start in the final over, by scoring10 runs off the last two balls.
“They say there are no fairy tales in sport, but that was a pretty good one today,” CSK coach Stephen Fleming said about Jadeja’s magical finish in CSK’s victory after GT posted 214 for 4 in 20 overs.
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“He [Jadeja] plays a great role with the ball, but we’ve got so much firepower that, in some ways, we use him [Jadeja] down the order. MS [Dhoni] has been very supportive and proactive of getting him up there. And today, he repaid that faith.
“That six was defining and then the left-handed drive to fine leg. It was a great way to finish it. I couldn’t be more happy for him. There has been some frustration at times, but he is our gun player. He’s our No. 1 ranked player and today he delivered,”
Fleming added.
Ajinkya Rahane (27 off 13 balls, 2×4, 2×6) has been a revelation for CSK this season with his aggressive approach and in the final too he kept them within striking distance of the target. Fleming said that Rahane has been a wonderful player for them this year. “My understanding is that we got rid of the tag of being the guy [Rahane] you bat around or bat through,” he claimed.
Titans’s mystery spinner Noor Ahmad removed both the Chennai openers, but not before Ruturaj Gaikwad (26, 16 balls, 3×4, 1×6) and player-of-the-match Devon Conway (47, 25 balls, 4×4, 2×6) had given them the momentum by adding 74 runs in 39 balls.
Mohit Sharma shook CSK a bit with three wickets in the space of seven balls, but Jadeja’s sword was too strong for Titans.
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