kolkata: It was a Kolkata Knight Riders surgical strike at Chepauk, destroying Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets at Chepauk.
Under MS Dhoni’s leadership, CSK could only manage 103/2 as their batting woes surfaced again. Chasing 104 to win, KKR overhauled the target without breaking a sweat, reaching 107/2.
KKR went on a flying start with Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine batting like it was a different wicket. They played with ease as the opening duo began picking apart the bowlers with regular sixes. Such was the domination that they reached 46 in 4.1 overs.
With de Kock on 23 off 16 balls, he was bowled playing all over an Anshul Kamboj delivery. That brought skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine together. Narine dealt only in sixes but was especially brutal on Ravichandran Ashwin. He was finally gone for 44 off 18 balls with five sixes and two fours, bowled first ball from Noor Ahmad. By then KKR were 85/2, needing 19 off 76 deliveries.
Enter Rahane. The Mumbaikar looked innovative and held the tie by the scruff of its neck. Not only he constantly rotated his bowlers during CSK’s innings, the use of Varun Chakaravarthy-Narine combo to befuddle Dhoni was also a masterstroke. While batting he showed his class, remaining unbeaten on 20, and studded with some delectable straight drives and pulls for sixes. Rinku Singhu, promoted up the order, also remained not out on 15 from 12. He finished the chase with a six over deep square leg.
It was a proper thrashing for CSK who have now lost five games in a row for the first time in the IPL. This was also their third consecutive defeat at Chepauk – another first – that they would like to rectify sooner than later. Nothing really went right for CSK tonight, as this was also the biggest margin of defeat for them in the IPL in terms of balls remaining.
Earlier, KKR won the toss and sent CSK in to bat on a track that looked to hold up at the beginning of the innings. Only this time the bowling unit seemed like a whole new lot — aggressive, miserly and
precise. Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana bowled with venom and precision.