(ESPNCRICINFO) – They had a much-maligned opener back to form, spectacularly. They had their other opening power to 95 not out. They had a total of 220 for 3, and then they had the opposition 31 for 5 inside the powerplay. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) then ran in with not only Andre Russell at his best breaking a ball, but Pat Cummins winding down in Dre 2.0, as the Kolkata Knights riders kept hammering away on target despite the apparent despair of their cause. The CSK had to contend with a game they thought had sewn bursting open again. But, in the end, they got past the finish line, winning by 18 runs in the final over.
Russell struck fifty of 21 balls, coming in for five down in 5.2 overs. Cummins walked in when Russell was out, saw Dinesh Karthik collapse as well, then reeled off fifty 23 balls. But in the end, CSK had surrendered too many runs and taken too many wickets beforehand, as a mighty hunt ended with the Knight Riders 202 all out in 19.1 overs. Cummins was unconvinced at 66 and the last two wickets ran out with Cummins trying to keep strike.
Wankhede Stadium’s status as a batting haven was restored in some style, as a succession of batsmen started against the bowling, in a game in which 26 sixes were struck.
Powe-rplay heroes Deepak Chahar, who left the Knight Riders in tattoos, almost became a footnote, as did his outstanding figures of 4 for 29 – until he finally hit those two runs.
The Super Kings were driven to their limit by fifties Ruturaj Gaikwad (64 off 42) and Faf du Plessis (95 * off 60) and, at pub break, must have thought they had enough length even if the dew did arrive. By the final end of the Knight Riders power play, they would have thought it was only a matter of time, and the nerdier among them would have been calculating the expected net run rate boost. Few could have foreseen the kind of vexatious return the Knights were setting in, but, in the end, the Super Kings together had done just enough.
Gaikwad repays the faith
He had come into the game with scores of 5, 5 and 10, with out-of-team calls increasingly demanding that the Super Kings should bench him. But the team kept the faith in Gaikwad, and repaid them spectacularly. He started in the second over, taking Pat Cummins for four and six to get Super Kings flying early. They continued to ascend, with du Plessis and Gaikwad depositing the ball where they were proud of much of their partnership. Gaikwad was particularly acute on the fast bowlers, taking on Cummins, Russell, Prasidh Krishna and the returning Kamlesh Nagarkoti for plenty. At the other end, du Plessis balanced that nicely by punishing Varun Chakravarthy. Sunil Narine, back for this game after recovering from a niggle, emerged relatively unscathed, taking 1 for 34 in four overs.
Both openers rushed forward at pace, but Gaikwad reached his first half century, off 33 balls. He was out in the 13th over, having a 115 run stand, and his innings had enough drives and flowing tints to mark a bulky return to formation.
Meanwhile, du Plessis carried on, picked up his own half-century 35 balls, and continued to go at the same pace until the end of the pubs.
The Super Kings gambled by sending MS Dhoni ahead of Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran, and although the captain found the edge of the bat as often as the middle, he got some good hits and came up with a huge total Super Kings.
Chahar Powerhouse
He has made it his habit to get the new ball done, and Chahar ripped through the Knight Riders mainstay in the powerplay. Their scores looked like a pincode, with five single-digit attempts in a row. Chahar struck in each of his first three overs, and his last wicket was Narine. The move to send Narine in at No. 5, before Karthik and Russell didn’t go away.
Chahar adhered to his approach and reaped the rewards: bowl tightly without offering too much space, getting the ball to deviate, and cash in on the batter’s mistakes.
Russell’s thunder, Cummins blitz
Russell hit three of his first four balls for four, four and six off Lungi Ngidi, and appeared in a thunderous mood from the outset. He had walked into a desperate situation, but also one tailor-made for him in a way, and all he needed to do was focus on a mat hitting a hard ball. He did it in Russell’s vintage style, covering the bowlers contemptuously. Karthik, who was going nearly ten runs over, seemed sloppy compared to Russell. The equation seemed beyond anyone, but the way Russell got started, and with Karthik also finding out his timing, it was much closer than it looked. Russell’s fall was as anti-climatic as his pubs were thrilling. After reaching fifty off his sixth six – all hitting hard enough to launch the ball into orbit – he faced up to Sam Curran in the 12th over and left a length ball on the stem of his believe it is going down.
However, he had moved too far across and misjudged it, as the delivery took off a stem, leaving him in disbelief, even as the Super Kings rejoiced. However, there was still one last shot to land from the Knight Riders, which came through Cummins. Hitting six sixes as effortlessly as Russell, Cummins kept the impossible hunt alive. Curran, who had hit the most decisive shot of the match, watched overdrive for 30 runs as Cummins rocked hard. She continued to run out of partners though, until she reached 20 she needed off the final over with Cummins on strike. Three good shots would have been made, but for that, Cummins needed to keep striking, and when Prasidh Krishna stumbled across for a first run and was a bit slow to turn around for the second, it was all over the Knights Knights.