It was a brutal onslaught and counter-attack from Andre Russell and Pat Cummins as they almost helped KKR chase down 221 after being 31/5. Earlier, Faf du Plessis’ 95 combined with Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 64 along with quick-fire cameos from Moeen Ali and MS Dhoni helped CSK get to 220/3.
Things looked dead and buried even before the halfway stage of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ run-chase. At 31/5 chasing 221, a massive defeat loomed largely. However, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell and Pat Cummins had other ideas as they almost pulled off a heist. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) survived that stunning counter-attack and held their nerve to register an 18-run win.
It was a game where CSK dominated a major part of it. But when Russell was at the crease alongside Karthik and then when Cummins got going towards the back end, it seemed all the hard work might vanish as KKR might pull off a miraculous chase. KKR skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and inserted CSK into bat first.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who had flopped in the first three games, came into this game under pressure. However, he repaid the faith of the captain and the team management as he smashed a fluent 64 off 42 balls to set the tone up front. Alongside Faf du Plessis, he put on a century stand for the first wicket.
The CSK openers got off to a brisk start, and it was the experienced du Plessis who took on the bowling in the powerplay, which allowed Gaikwad to get into his flow. The three-time champions scored 54 in the powerplay, and it was Gaikwad who upped the ante once the field spread out. He overtook his South African opening partner and notched up his fourth IPL half-century. He raced away to 64 before Varun Chakravarthy broke the 115-run opening stand as he had Gaikwad caught at deep mid-wicket.
Faf du Plessis, who had slowed post the powerplay, got his fifty off 35 balls. But it was Moeen Ali’s arrival that set CSK up for the flourishing finish. The England off-spinning all-rounder smashed a 12-ball 25 before he perished trying to slog Sunil Narine and was out stumped. Dhoni promoted himself to No. 4 and broke his jinx against Narine, scoring his first-ever boundary against the Caribbean mystery spinner in the history of the IPL.
The CSK skipper swung his bat around while du Plessis got going from the other end as well. The South African struck Russell for three fours in the 19th over before Dhoni was caught at covers, courtesy of a fantastic catch by his counterpart Eoin Morgan. Du Plessis and Jadeja combined to smash three sixes off the final over to push CSK’s score to 220, and the former was unbeaten on 95.
Chasing a mammoth total, KKR were blown away by Deepak Chahar in the powerplay. The premier CSK pacer ran through the KKR top-order and left them in tatters at 31/5. Shubman Gill was out for a first-ball duck as he couldn’t control his slash and holed out at third-man as Chahar struck in the first over. Nitish Rana struck a couple of boundaries, but he never looked comfortable. The left-hander top-edged one innocuous leg-stump delivery from Chahar, who picked up the wickets of Morgan and Narine in his third over as well. At the other end, Lungi Ngidi, who was playing his first game of the season, scalped Rahul Tripathi.
Russell walked out and sent out a clear message from the get-go. He was going after everything. He smashed Ngidi for two fours and a six of the first four deliveries that he faced. Chahar bowled out early but was hit for a couple of sixes in his last over as well as KKR were on the charge. Jadeja bowled a couple of decent overs and conceded just 15 in his first two overs.
It was then Russell launched a stunning onslaught on Shardul Thakur and smashed him for three sixes and a four in an over. The Jamaican got to fifty in just 21 balls, and it came in the 11th over. At the other end, Karthik was also going along nicely and kept finding the boundary regularly too.
Sam Curran was re-introduced in the 12th over, and the England left-handed all-rounder knocked over Russell, who left alone a leg-stump delivery and was bowled round his legs. Karthik and Cummins shared a quickfire 34-run stand to keep KKR in the hunt. Ngidi foxed Karthik with a superb slower one and had him LBW in the 15th over. It seemed like that was surely the game for KKR.
But Cummins didn’t want to go down without a fight. He launched a stunning counter-attack and smashed Curran for 30 runs in the 16th over. Ngidi then bowled a superb 17th over, conceding just five, four of which came through byes. Cummins kept losing partners at the other end, but he didn’t stop and continued the attack. He peeled off 12 runs from the 18th over and struck Curran for another six on the second ball off the 19th.
However, Chakravarthy was runout, and with 20 needed off the final over, Prasidh Krishna was runout on the first ball of the 20th. Cummins was stranded on 66 as KKR lost the game by 18 runs. It was the third successive loss for Eoin Morgan and co. With this win, CSK move to the top of the points table.
Brief Scores
Chennai Super Kings 220/3 (du Plessis 95, Gaikwad 64, Ali 25, Chakravarthy 1/27) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 202 allout (Cummins 66*, Russell 54, Karthik 40, Chahar 4/29, Ngidi 3/28) by 18 runs
