|| CF DESK ||

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman got two wickets in Chennai Super Kings’ dominating win by 63 runs over Gujarat Titans in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Chennai on Tuesday.

Rachin Ravindra got CSK off to a flier after Shubman Gill won the toss and said that GT would be bowling first in the first match between these two sides since that dramatic 2023 final.

Ravindra made the most of the powerplay but missed out on a half-century though, falling to Rashid Khan off the second ball of the last over of the powerplay on 46 off 20.

Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad then fell on 46 as well, off 36 deliveries. Shivam Dube has since looked as dangerous as ever.

Shivam Dube blazed 51 off 23 balls as Chennai Super Kings scored a mammoth 206/6.

The 207-run target was always going to be a huge challenge for GT, but their captain Shubman Gill showcased his intentions when he lofted his first ball for a six over long-off.

Wriddhiman Saha essayed some confident shots early on and picked boundaries.

However, Deepak Chahar opened the account for CSK when he trapped Gill leg-before in the third over. It was then an uphill task for GT, getting steeper and steeper with each passing over.

With wickets falling at regular intervals, the pressure only intensified on the batters that walked into the middle.

Sai Sudharsan, GT’s Player of the Match in their season opener, tried to hold the innings together with a 31-ball 37, but the innings never got going for the visitors.

The CSK bowlers backed the efforts of their batters with a complete team effort. Chahar’s two for 28 to begin with and Tushar Deshpande’s two for 21 in the middle overs helped keep the pressure on the GT batters.

Matheesha Pathirana played his first match of this edition and marked it with the wicket of Sai Sudharsan.

Mustafizur two wickets helped him clinch the Purple Cap at the end of the game. He conceded 10 runs in his first over and gave away 13 runs when he came back to bowl the 11th over.

After his expensive start, he came back strongly when he bowled two of the final four overs where he picked up two wickets- Rashid Khan and Rahul Tewatia, and gave away eight runs, finishing with two wickets for 30.