Chennai Super Kings won the IPL title by beating the Kolkata Knight Riders who had to pay a heavy price for a missed stumping of top scorer Faf du Plessis in Dubai on Friday night in what eventually became a one-sided final.
In chasing down a 193-target, the Knight Riders slumped to 125 for 8 in 16.3 overs and then reached 165 for 9 in the 20 overs after tail-end batsmen Shivam Mavi and Lockie Ferguson threw their bats at every ball to add 39 runs.
Du Plessis who finished as the second best accumulator of runs (633), struggled to get off to a desired start after his team were put into bat first and with his score on 2 the experienced wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik missed a stumping off Shakib Al Hasan that proved one of the costliest blunders ever made in an IPL final as the South African went on to make a match-winning 86.
The Knight Riders started the run chase as if they meant business when their opening pair of Shubman Gill (51) and Venkatesh Iyer (50) posted 91 runs for the first wicket in 10.3 overs.
But the Super Kings needed just one wicket to wrap up the proceedings and Iyer obliged when in an attempt to hoist a ball from paceman Shardul Thakur out of the ground he was caught by Ravindra Jadeja at long-off.
Then followed Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthil and Rahul Tripathi unable to reach even double figures as the Super Kings tightened their grip on the match and the Knight Riders crashed miserably.
Scores:
Chennai Super Kings 192 for 3 in 20 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 32, Faf du Plessis 86, Robin Uthappa 31, Moen Ali 37 not out, Sunil Narine 2 for 26)
Kolkata Knight Riders 165 for 9 in 20 (Shubman Gill 51, Venkatesh Iyer 50, Shivam Mavi 20, Josh Hazlewood 2 for 29, Shahdul Thakur 3 for 38, Ravindra Jadeja 2 for 37)