Fizz returning from IPL with 14 wickets

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman ended his stint at the ongoing Indian Premier League with 14 wickets as he played his last match on Wednesday at the Chidambaram Stadium for five-time winners Chennai Super Kings. 

With Bangladesh scheduled for a five-match T20I series at home against Zimbabwe, starting on Friday, Mustafizur will have to come back for national duty as his NOC expires on Thursday. In his eighth and last match for Chennai, the left-arm pacer went wicketless despite an impressive display where he gave away just 22 runs from his four overs, including a maiden. However, his efforts could not take Chennai to a victory as the Rituraj Gaikwad-led side lost by seven wickets against the Punjab Kings.

This was the first instance that Mustafizur failed to take a wicket in a match in the ongoing season and ended his campaign as the joint-top wicket-taker with Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel, both of whom have 14 wickets in the bag so far. Mustafizur’s best return in a single IPL campaign came in 2016 when he helped Sunrisers Hyderabad to the title, taking 17 wickets in 16 matches.

On Wednesday, Punjab depended on Jonny Bairstow’s 46 and 43 by Rilee Rossouw to achieve victory with 13 balls to spare in pursuit of 163.

England’s Bairstow kept up his form from the previous match when he hit an unbeaten 108 as Punjab chased down a record IPL target of 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens.

Bairstow and Rossouw put on 64 runs for the second wicket to set up the chase.

Shivam Dube had Bairstow caught behind and Shardul Thakur bowled Rossouw to have Punjab in trouble at 113-3 in 12 overs.

Shashank Singh, who made 25, and skipper Sam Curran, who hit 26, then put on an unbeaten stand of 50 to steer the team home for just their fourth win and keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

Five-time winners Chennai have won five and lost five and stay fourth in the 10-team table led by Rajasthan Royals.

The pitch in Chennai was not run-friendly as the hosts posted 162-7 riding on skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 62 and late evening dew added to the home team’s misery.

But bowlers set up victory with spinners Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar taking two wickets each in their miserly spells — both giving away 33 runs in eight overs combined.

Gaikwad put on an opening stand of 64 with Ajinkya Rahane and despite losing wickets the other end kept calm to push the total forward.

Gaikwad surpassed Royal Challengers Bengaluru star Virat Kohli (500) as the leading batsman in the T20 tournament with 509 runs in 10 innings.

Gaikwad built key partnerships in the middle-order with Sameer Rizvi, who hit 21, and Moeen Ali, who made 15, before being bowled by left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh.

Veteran MS Dhoni came out to a rousing reception from the home crowd in what is likely his last IPL as a player and he hit 14 off 11 balls before being run out on the final ball.

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