Andre Russell and Pat Cummins’ blistering half centuries went in vain, as Chennai Super Kings defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders by 18 runs in Mumbai on Wednesday.
After being sent in Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan, Chennai Super Kings’ opening pair of Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad got their off to a fantastic start. The duo added 115 runs for the opening wicket before Gaikwad was caught at deep mid wicket by Cummins off Varun Chakravarthy for a well made 64.
Moeen Ali came in and smashed a quickfire 25 off 12 balls before being stumped by Dinesh Karthik off Sunil Narine.
MS Dhoni who promoted himself to No. 4 scored a 8 ball 17 before falling to a brilliant catch by his opposite number Morgan. Du Plessis smashed Russell for three successive boundaries and two sixes off Cummins in their last overs and his unbeaten 60 ball-95 powered CSK to 220/3.
Chasing 221, Deepak Chahar wrecked the Knight Riders’ top and middle order by claiming the wickets of young Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, skipper Eoin Morgan and Sunil Narine to leave them in tatters at 31/5.
Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik stitched together a valuable 81 run stand for the sixth wicket before the former was bowled in bizarre fashion by Sam Curran for a quickfire 54 off 22 balls. Karthik kept KKR in the hunt by hitting a couple of sixes before he was deceived by a slower ball by Ngidi and trapped LBW for an impressive 24-ball 40.
KKR pace spearhead Cummins then smashed Curran for four sixes in the 16th over, taking 30 off it to raise Knight Riders’ hopes of a stunning win. With 20 runs needed off the last over, No.11 Prasidh Krishna was run out in the first delivery as Kolkata were bowled out for 202 giving CSK a 18 run win. The victory took Chennai to the top of the table.
Faf du Plessis was declared the Man of the Match.