Man of the Match 2021 final: The batter from Chennai Super Kings won the match award for scoring his sixth half-century of the season.
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During the final match of the ongoing 14th season of the Indian Premier League between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders in Dubai, Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 27 runs.
Chasing a 193-run target, Kolkata Knight Riders scored 165/9 in their allotted quota of 20 overs. A 91-run opening partnership between Shubman Gill (51) and Venkatesh Iyer (50) did keep them in the chase but them losing eight wickets for 34 runs snatched all the progress made by Gill and Iyer.
With bowling figures of 4-0-38-3, Thakur was the pick of the bowlers for CSK in the night of the final. In addition to Thakur, Josh Hazlewood and Ravindra Jadeja also picked a couple of wickets each. It is worth mentioning that Thakur was the one who had not just picked the first wicket but also dismissed Nitish Rana (0) in the same over to bring back his team into the match.
Man of the Match 2021 final CSK vs KKR
Asked to bat first by Kolkata captain Eoin Morgan, Chennai put on board a formidable 192/3 in 20 overs on the back of opening batter Faf du Plessis scoring a responsible 86* (59) with the help of nine fours and three sixes.
In what was his sixth half-century of the season, it was also his 22nd in the history of the tournament and 44th in his T20 career. Having scored 633 runs in 16 innings at an average and strike rate of 45.21 and 138.20 respectively, 37-year old du Plessis has finished the tournament as its second-highest run-scorer.
Having received a reprieve by KKR wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik in only the third over, du Plessis made the most of the opportunity to score the most runs in IPL 2021 final and win the ‘Man of the Match’ award.
“That was a great day. I am really grateful for today. It was also my 100th game in the IPL. I have loved my time here. I have done almost ten years here – two seasons were a bit of a break. No. 4 in the trophy cabinet is really good.
“[Ruturaj] Gaikwad is a special talent. Indian cricket is blessed with talent. He is getting better. He’s got a super, bright future ahead of him. I have a word with him, but I don’t think he needs me,” du Plessis was quoted as saying by Star Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony.
