Skipper Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh scored fine half centuries as Kolkata Knight Riders kept their hopes alive by defeating Chennai Super Kings by 6 wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Chennai Super Kings opening pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway got Chennai off to a steady start. The pair added 31 runs for the opening wicket before the former was dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy for 17.
Varun claimed his second wicket by dismissing Ajinkya Rahane (16), caught at long on by Jason Roy. The in form Devon Conway then miscued a pull off a short of a length delivery fom Shardul Thakur to Rinku Singh for a 28 ball-30.
Sunil Narine then got into the act by knocking over both Ambati Rayudu (4) and Moeen Ali (1). Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja added 68 for the sixth wicket to help Chennai reach a competitive total of 144/6 in their 20 overs.
Chasing 145, Deepak Chahar got Chennai off to a dream start as Rahmanullah Gurbaz (1) sliced a catch to Tushar Deshpande at deep point. Venkatesh Iyer then edged a delivery from Chahar to Ravindra Jadeja at short third man.
The Chennai pacer claimed his third wicket of the match by dismissing Jason Roy caught at short third man by Matheesha Pathirana for 12.
Nitish Rana along with Rinku Singh brought the innings back on track with a valuable 99 run stand for the fourth wicket before the latter (54) was run out by a direct hit from Moeen Ali.
Rana (57)* then scored the winning runs, edging a drive off Tushar Deshpande to the third man boundary as Kolkata overhauled the target of 146 with 9 balls to spare.
Kolkata Knight Riders 147 for 4 (Rana 57*, Rinku 54, Chahar 3-27) beat Chennai Super Kings 144 for 6 (Dube 48*, Conway 30, Narine 2-15, Varun 2-36) by six wickets