CSK defeats KKR by 3 wickets to reclaim the top spot on points table

The Chennai Super Kings took on Kolkata Knight Riders in the first match of the doubleheader weekend in a high octane match and it lived up to the billing.

The Chennai Super Kings took on Kolkata Knight Riders in the first match of the doubleheader weekend in a high octane match and it lived up to the billing. This match meant a lot for the KKR side as they were striving to remain in the top half of the table. While for the CSK side a win would only take them closer to registering their place in the Playoffs.

Eoin Morgan KKR’s captain won the toss and following the trend decided to bat first. With Shubhman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer, being their openers, the Kolkata side was looking to put on a great score on what looked like a very flat wicket.  Things did not go according to their plans, as Gill was ran out by Rayudu, at a cheap score of 9. He was soon followed by his opening partner Iyer, who was looking in good nick until he nicked a ball wide outside off stump.

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Captain Morgan came to the crease with the intent of speeding up the run rate but fell prey to Hazlewood. Faf du Plessis took a fantastic catch at a long-on boundary to dismiss the Englishman.

Rahul Tripathi however tried to keep up the ante by scoring in a very flamboyant manner. However, in an attempt to reverse-sweep Jadeja, he ended up playing over the ball which crashed into his off stump. The big unit of Andre Russel also couldn’t escape the wrath of Lord Thakur, who was having a day with the ball in his hand. He removed the West Indian for the cheap score of 20. At this point, it felt as if KKR would fall well short of what can be called a respectable total. But Dinesh Kartik had different ideas in his mind. He  scored a quickfire 26 off 11 deliveries to help his team reach a respectable total of 171. Shardul Thakur turned out to be the best bowler for his side. He only conceded 20 runs in his 4 overs and picked up 2 crucial wickets.

The CSK hit their strides running in the second innings, as the dependable duo of Gaikwad and du Plessis gave their side a great start. They added 74 runs for the wicket until Gaikwad was dismissed by Russel. Joined by Moeen Ali on the crease, du Plessis kept up the act of scoring quickly which led to his untimely dismissal at 43 runs. None of the batsmen after this could manage to get their eyes in. As a result, Ambati Ryudu, Moeen Ali, Suresh Raina, and then M.S. Dhoni, in that order, fell prey to pressure in quick succession.

With two new batsmen on the crease, CSK was required to chase 26 in 2 overs. That is when Sir Ravindra Jadeja decided to step up and smoked Prasidh Krishna for 20 runs in 5 balls.

The game was not over though, as the first ball of the last over by Sunil Naraine claimed the wicket of Curran, which opened the game completely. The new batsman in was Shardul Thakur, with 4 runs required in 5 balls. He missed the his first ball but managed to score 3 runs of the next ball, to tie the scores. The game took another twist in the dying moments when Jadeja got out on the 5th ball. Everyone was expecting the match to go into the super over when Chahar but hoofed the ball over the mid-wicket region to scamper for a quick single on the last ball. CSK won the match with 3 wickets in hand and is top of the table again.