CHENNAI Super King (CSK) beat Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by 22 runs in the first of two IPL 2019 matches yesterday.

CSK posted a total of 160-3 in their stipulated 20 overs. Their captain MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat first.

Openers Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis gave the home team a good start. However, KXIP spinners – with Ravichandran Ashwin being the destructor-in-chief – bogged down the scoring rate in the middle overs.

MS Dhoni came up with a good finish at the end, however, as 44 runs were scored off the final three overs to get the score up to 160.

The KXIP innings got off to a rocky start, with Harbhajan Singh capturing the wickets of Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal in the same over. KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan consolidated in the middle part of the innings but ran out of ideas as the spinners choked the scoring rate.

With this, CSK have 8 points from 5 matches and KXIP continue to have 6 points, also having played 5 matches.