Chennai Super Kings rode on Dewald Brevis’ magnificent half-century and Noor Ahmad’s brilliant four-wicket haul to record a come-from-behind two-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Choosing to bat, KKR relied on its collective batting effort to post a challenging 179 for six. In reply, CSK recovered from a precarious 60 for five to secure a thrilling victory and jolt KKR’s progress.
At a divided house, reverberating with mini purple vuvuzelas and ‘CSK, CSK’ chants, CSK had a disastrous start. Barring the fourth over, the tourists lost a wicket in five of the first six overs as Harshit Rana claimed two of them.
Nonetheless, Brevis (52, 25b, 4×4, 4×6), after settling down, resurrected CSK’s innings with his astounding straight-batted strokeplay in the 11th over as Vaibhav Arora leaked 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4. Angkrish Raghuvanshi dropped the South African in the first ball of the over, which cost KKR dearly.
After Brevis, clean-hitting Impact Player Shivam Dube (45, 40b, 2×4, 3×6) and the charismatic MS Dhoni played their roles well as CSK avenged its home defeat and ended its four-match losing streak.
Earlier, captain Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine ensured another productive PowerPlay, worth 67 for one, for KKR.
Rahane (48, 33b, 4×4, 2×6) sparkled again with his lovely pick-up shots through the aerial route, predominantly on the leg-side.
Narine, who hammered 17 runs off R. Ashwin’s first over, scored a quick 26 and contributed in a useful 58-run stand with Rahane.
Noor dealt a double blow in the eighth over by dismissing Narine and Raghuvanshi as Dhoni lived up to his reputation behind the stumps.
With some help from the pitch, the CSK spin trio – an efficient Noor, who kept the batters guessing with his craft and emerged as the best among the CSK bowlers, a resilient Ashwin and an accurate Ravindra Jadeja – brought KKR’s run rate down.
After Jadeja removed Rahane, Manish Pandey (36 n.o., 28b, 1×4, 1×6) and Andre Russell (38, 21b, 4×4, 3×6), who again displayed his muscle power by plundering fours and sixes off Jadeja, Matheesha Pathirana and Noor, formed a crucial 28-ball 46-run partnership.
