Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bid farewell to Chepauk where they had a bittersweet outing. Their first opponent came in the form of the high-flying Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Toss and Team News
KKR won the toss and elected to bowl first. The change in venue also brought upon a change in the combination for the team. Sunil Narine and Kamlesh Nagarkoti were included in the playing eleven instead of Shakib Al Hasan and Harbhajan Singh.
CSk also made a slight tweak to their winning combination. Dwayne Bravo was rested and pacer Lungi Ngidi was handed his first appearance of the season.
CSK racked up a mammoth first innings total
Having instilled their trust in Ruturaj Gaikwad (64) following three successive poor outings. The youngster repaid the faith with a sublime fifty.
CSK raced off to 54 runs in the powerplay on a surface which aided batting. Faf du Plessis (95) allowed Gaikwad to assume the control in the middle once he found his rhythm and confidence.
Varun Chakravarthy (1-27) handed CSK their first blow with Gaikwad finding Pat Cummins (0-58) at deep midwicket following a slog sweep.
Moeen Ali (25) used his good form to get going from the word go. The England all-rounder dispatched Sunil Narine (1-34) for two successive deliveries before being deceived and stumped by Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps.
MS Dhoni (17) promoted himself at the order with 3 overs left to play. The CSK skipper had a nervy start with the edges going to the boundary rope. He finally connected one off Pat Cummins for his first six in the tournament and also managed to score a boundary against Sunil Narine for the first time. He had to depart following a magnificent grab by Eoin Morgan at cover.
The two-time champions ended the innings on a high note as the final over yielded 19 runs which included 3 sixes.
KKR blown apart in the powerplay
Returning on the same pitch where he had registered a four-wicket haul against Punjab Kings, Deepak Chahar (4-27) replicated his feats and decimated the KKR top order.
The pacer’s first victim was Shubman Gill (0), who fell for a first ball duck. Nitish Rana (9), Eoin Morgan (7), and Sunil Narine (4) were all dismissed by Chahar and failed to reach double digits.
Lungi Ngidi (3-28) nailed a final blow in the powerplay with the wicket of Rahul Tripathi (8). KKR were struggling at 31-5 in the sixth over.
Andre Russell (54), coming in at No.7, made his intentions clear by going after the bowling attack mercilessly. The run-rate which was languishing around 6 was boosted up to 10 around the halfway mark courtesy the all-rounder’s exploits.
Joined by Dinesh Karthik (40) at the other end, the duo brought up the 50-run partnership in no time. The Caribbean registered his fifty in just 21 balls to perk up the chase and threatened to take the game away from CSK. He took apart Shardul Thakur (0-48) for 24 runs enroute the landmark.
Russell misjudged a delivery on leg stump by Sam Curran (1-58) and saw it being castled. Karthik tried to keep the ship afloat, but was undone by a clevel slower ball by Ngidi.
Pat Cummins (66) took the game down the wire with a sensational fifty out of which 30 was scored off a single over to Curran. He was let down by the tail order who failed to make it in time into the crease. On the bank of those two runouts, CSK nailed a marginal win in the final over by 18 runs.
Brief Scorecard:
CSK 220-3 (20 overs) (F. du Plessis 95*; V.Chakravarthy 1-27)
KKR 202 all out (19.1 overs) (P.Cummins 66*; D.Chahar 4-29)
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