Finance
With a brilliant spell of 3-18, Ravindra Jadeja turned the tide of the match, and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad returned to form with a welcome century off 58 balls. The defending champion Chennai Super Kings defeated Kolkata Knight Riders seven wickets to earn their third home victory of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.
In his four overs of a crucial period that decided the game, Jadeja remained on a stump-to-stump line while making little adjustments to pace and direction to unsettle KKR’s top hitters. Tushar Deshpande, a fast bowler, and Mustafizur Rahman, a returning player, produced superb spells in the latter half of the innings that combined perfect slower deliveries with wonderful lines and lengths to pick 3-33 and 2-22, respectively.
The trio’s efforts meant KKR were restricted to a below-par 137/9 on a sluggish pitch offering turn. Later, Gaikwad dazzled in front of the faithful home crowd with a flurry of delightful nine boundaries to carry his bat and complete the modest chase with 14 balls to spare.
Coming into this game, Gaikwad had scored 88 runs in four matches with a highest score of 46. But when it mattered, along with dew coming in, he stood up tall and relied on timing plus piercing the gaps to get a comfortable win for CSK. He was also supported by nice 20s from Daryl Mitchell and impact player Shivam Dube in snapping KKR’s unbeaten streak.
Electing to bowl first, Deshpande got a length ball to shape away from Phil Salt, who couldn’t keep it down and slashed to backward point for a golden duck. He also made the dangerous Sunil Narine play and miss a lot in the opening over, by not giving any room and bowling majorly on his hips. But Narine got going against Deshpande in the third over, whipping, thumping and flicking to collect two fours and a six. He then brought out the straight drive against Shardul Thakur for four and dispatched Maheesh Theekshana over long-on for six to bring up KKR’s 50.
From the other end, young Angkrish Raghuvanshi played four authoritative boundaries, including launching a six over Theekshana’s head as KKR ended the power-play at 56/1. But then Jadeja arrived to bring CSK back into the match by taking three wickets in eight balls.
On his first ball, Jadeja trapped Raghuvanshi lbw, when the batter shaped up for a reverse sweep, and missed it to be out for 24. He had Narine miscuing to long-off and fall for 27, before returning to have Venkatesh Iyer pulling straight to mid-wicket. Ramandeep Singh was next to fall after being cast by a carrom ball from Theekshana.
Captain Shreyas Iyer collected two boundaries, but could not get going as cutters were in control of the game. Scratchy-looking, Rinku Singh sliced a wide, slower delivery from Deshpande onto his stumps. Mainly Mustafizur’s wide slower balls silenced Andre Russell. Despite being dropped by MS Dhoni, he scored run-a-ball 10 after hitting two fours in the off-side region and holed out to long-on off a slower, fuller delivery from Deshpande.
After KKR made 38 runs in their final five overs and lost four wickets, Iyer’s ordeal came to an end on 34 when he slogged to deep mid-wicket off a slower ball from Mustafizur. Mitchell Starc was also forced to pull to deep square leg.
Chasing 138, Rachin Ravindra got moving with three fours coming via an on-drive, loft and heave off Starc in the third over. But in a bid to go over long-on, Ravindra miscued one to the fielder off Vaibhav Arora. From the other end, Gaikwad began by ramping Arora for four, followed by him taking three boundaries off left-arm spinner Anukul Roy, all of which had a silken touch. He backed away to create room for driving thrice in the packed off-side gap with exquisite timing and precision.
Gaikwad then smashed Arora for two back-to-back fours –- a punched drive was followed by a fierce cut, as CSK made 52/1 in power-play. Mitchell kickstarted his promotion to three, with Ajinkya Rahane nursing a calf strain, by dancing down the pitch to loft Narine for six, followed by reverse-sweeping him for four more.
With Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy bowling a few tidy overs, Gaikwad and Mitchell didn’t take undue risks to keep the scoreboard moving. Gaikwad got his first fifty of the season with a brace off Chakaravarthy, but Narine broke the second wicket stand of 70 off 55 balls by castling an advancing Mitchell with flight and turn through the gate.
As the finish line approached, Starc gave a pulled four to each of Gaikwad and Dube. Then, the latter hit Chakaravarthy for strong sixes over long off and down the ground. Dube took Arora deep mid-wicket for another six over with great force, and the bowler crushed his off stump. Following Dhoni’s single, Gaikwad ensured that CSK secured their eighth victory over KKR at Chepauk by slapping Roy through cover for four runs to round off the chase.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 137/9 in 20 overs (Shreyas Iyer 34, Sunil Narine 27; Ravindra Jadeja 3-18, Tushar Deshpande 3-33) lost to Chennai Super Kings 141/3 in 17.4 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 67 not out, Shivam Dube 28; Vaibhav Arora 2-28, Sunil Narine 1-30) by seven wickets.
Source:IANS
