Deepak Chahar, after going wicketless in the first game, ran through Punjab Kings' top-order, accounting for the dismissals of four out of top five batsmen at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday. He rattled Mayank Agarwal's timber with a peach of a delivery that tailed just the bit to beat the outside edge and crashed onto off stump. After a quiet second over, his twin strike sent shockwaves among Punjab Kings fans as he dismissed their two big-hitters from the West Indies Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran inside three deliveries. With Deepak Chahar on top, MS Dhoni made him bowl all his four overs on the trot and he got rid of Deepak Hooda to finish his spell with a wicket maiden. He returned with the figures of 4/13 his best performance in IPL so far.
Impressed with Deepak Chahar's bowling performance, Team India head coach took to Twitter to salute him for swinging the ball with great control.
Tipping his hat to Deepak Chahar's superb spell, Shastri tweeted: "Proven fact. Genuine swing both ways with control can undo the best. Super variations. Brilliant @deepak_chahar9 #SKvsPBKS @IPL #IPL2021 @ChennaiIPL."
Former Indian player and cricket commentator, Aakash Chopra took the opportunity to remind everyone that despite being so good at his craft, Deepak Chahar has "fallen out favour" of the Indian team in the shortest format. He also added that not so long ago he created the T20I world record, picking six wickets for just seven runs against Bangaldesh.
"Wonder why Deepak Chahar had fallen out of favour for Team India in the T20s.....in the squad but not in the playing XI. World record holder....achieved that not too long ago. #PBKSvsCSK #IPL2021," tweeted Aakash Chopra.
"Smart bowling by Deepak chahar. Surprise Bouncer is always a good option from swing bowler,as batsman always thinking to play on front foot to negate the swing. #CSKvPBKS," Irfaan Pathan wrote on the micro-blogging site.
Riding on Deepak Chahar's superb bowling performance, CSK restricted Punjab Kings to 106/8 -- the lowest team total so far this season.