Ajinkya Rahane and Devon Conway’s scintillating knocks in the first innings and Maheesh Theekshana’s allowed Chennai Super Kings to register a dominant victory against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on Sunday.
Chasing 236, Kolkata Knight Riders were rocked early as opener Sunil Narine was cleaned up by CSK’s Impact Player Akash Singh without opening his account, off the fourth ball of the innings. N Jagadeesan departed in the second over. Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana then got together and steadied the sinking ship. The duo hit two fours and a six each as KKR reached 38/2 at the end of the Powerplay.
Akash Singh bowled four overs straight up and finished with impressive figures of 4-0-29-1. Dhoni then introduced Moeen Ali into the attack and he struck off his first ball, trapping Venkatesh Iyer LBW as he missed his slog sweep. Iyer reviewed it but the ball tracking system showed all three reds. Jason Roy, who had injured himself while fielding, then came out all guns blazing hitting three consecutive sixes off Moeen Ali.
But Ravindra Jadeja brought CSK back into the game as he picked KKR skipper Nitish Rana’s wicket after being hit for a four off the previous ball. KKR hobbled to 76/4 at the halfway mark. Roy and Rinku Singh then pressed the accelerator button, hammering a couple of sixes and a four off Jadeja. Roy took on Theekshana in the next over hitting a six and a four to make it 33 from two overs. Roy brought up his fifty, off just 19 balls. Roy cracked a couple of fours off Theekshana but the Sri Lankan spinner bounced back hard to clean him up with a yorker on 61(26).
With the required run rate touching almost 20 (99 required from 30) Rinku and Andre Russell went after Tushar Deshpande and took 19 off the over including two fours and a six. Pathirana then got rid of Russell (9 off 6) as he ended up mistiming his shot. The Sri Lankan pacer bowled a brilliant over and gave away just eight including the wicket of Russell. Rinku Singh tried to put up a fight, bringing up his fifty with a six, off Pathirana but the equation was out of his reach as well, as KKR fell short by 49 runs. Rinku Singh remained unbeaten on 53 off 33 balls with four sixes and three fours. Put to bat first, CSK got off to a fine start as their openers Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad kept KKR bowlers on their toes from the very first over of the innings.