Dubai: Shane Watson (83 not out) and Faf du Plessis (87 not out) brought Chennai Super Kings (CSK) back to winning ways in emphatic fashion on Sunday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
The pair put an unbeaten 181-run opening partnership to take their team to a 10-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).
CSK chased down the target of 179 with more than two overs to spare.
It was only the second time that CSK had managed to win a match by 10 wickets. They also became the first team to successfully chase down a target in Dubai this season.
CSK have four points from five matches, while KXIP slipped to the bottom having suffered their fourth loss in five games.
Watson and du Plessis hardly gave chances to the bowling side and got off to a swift start. Du Plessis smashed 19 runs off the sixth over to take CSK to 60 within the powerplay and they crossed 100 in the 10th over.
There were some murmurs between Watson and the umpire and later with captain K L Rahul over what seemed to Ravi Bishnoi's run-up during the 16th over. du Plessis finished off the chase with a six and a four off the third and fourth balls of the 18th over bowled by Shami.
Earlier, highly effective death over bowling from Shardul Thakur and Dwayne Bravo helped CSK restrict KXIP to 178/4 after the latter looked set for a total close to or beyond the 200-run mark.
Mayank Agarwal (26) and Rahul added 61 for the opening wicket before leggie Piyush Chawla struck the first blow by dismissing the former in the ninth over.
Rahul and Mandeep Singh put on 33 for the second wicket. Mandeep, playing his first game of the season, was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja for a 16-ball 27.
Rahul continued the fine run in the company of Nicholas Pooran. The two added 58 before Thakur dismissed them off successive balls. Rahuls' 63 came off 52 balls, while Pooran smashed 33 off just 17 balls.
