CHENNAI: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane has cried himself hoarse asking for a spin-friendly pitch at their home ground, the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) hasn’t yet obliged and naturally, the results haven’t been spectacular. However, on Friday at Chennai Super Kings ’ (CSK) home ground, the MA Chidambaram Stadium, KKR’s spin-trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Moeen Ali — along with paceman Harshit Rana, who is very good with his cutters — got a slightly conducive surface and wreaked havoc, subjecting the hosts to the kind of humiliation they are not used to at home.
CSK were dismissed for 103/9 — their lowest at the Chepauk — topping their previous low of 109 against MI in 2019. The KKR batters, though, showed that there weren’t any demons in the pitch. A mighty assault led by Narine (44 off 18 balls) and his opening partnership of 46 off 25 balls with Quinton de Kock finished off any hopes of a CSK fightback.
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KKR notched up the eight-wicket win in 10.1 overs, boosting their net run-rate significantly, while CSK now have no place to hide.
The game was set up with a combination of excellent bowling and some atrocious batting by the CSK batters, most of them well past their prime. With losses in five consecutive games, CSK’s famed strategy of playing with experienced players, who may have played their best cricket a long while ago, is truly unravelling. But then, that doesn’t take anything away from KKR.
The visitors had a well-thought out plan and captain Rahane chose to bowl even though CSK had lost four matches chasing. Quite clearly, he believed that his bowlers are up to the job on a pitch where the ball was stopping and turning.
Rahane introduced Moeen (1/20) in the Powerplay with his off-spin and it was in his first two overs that the die was cast. His second over was a maiden when he had the wicket of Devon Conway, missing one in his attempt to reverse sweep to be leg-before.
Paceman Harshit used his change of pace to induce a false shot off Rachin Ravindra and with the score reading 16/2 in 4.1 overs, the CSK innings was already in doldrums. From there on, it was a tale of Varun (2/22) and Narine (3/13) stifling the middle-order which seemed clueless against their guile.
They hit the right length, got the ball to turn just a little bit as the CSK batters failed to read them from their hands. The likes of Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tripathi, Ravindra Jadeja and ‘impact sub’ Deepak Hooda were unable to take the attack to the rivals as wickets kept falling.
But the biggest disappointment was ‘new captain’ MS Dhoni . Batting at No. 9, he missed a faster one off Narine and got caught plumb in front. He asked for a review, it went on for quite a while, the fans hoped and prayed for a hint or murmur from the bat, but there wasn’t any.
Shivam Dube at the other end was left stranded, unbeaten on 31, and helped CSK limp past the 100-mark. In the process, he pulled his hamstring and if the injury gets worse, CSK are really looking at more bleak days.
CSK were dismissed for 103/9 — their lowest at the Chepauk — topping their previous low of 109 against MI in 2019. The KKR batters, though, showed that there weren’t any demons in the pitch. A mighty assault led by Narine (44 off 18 balls) and his opening partnership of 46 off 25 balls with Quinton de Kock finished off any hopes of a CSK fightback.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel.
KKR notched up the eight-wicket win in 10.1 overs, boosting their net run-rate significantly, while CSK now have no place to hide.
The game was set up with a combination of excellent bowling and some atrocious batting by the CSK batters, most of them well past their prime. With losses in five consecutive games, CSK’s famed strategy of playing with experienced players, who may have played their best cricket a long while ago, is truly unravelling. But then, that doesn’t take anything away from KKR.
The visitors had a well-thought out plan and captain Rahane chose to bowl even though CSK had lost four matches chasing. Quite clearly, he believed that his bowlers are up to the job on a pitch where the ball was stopping and turning.
Rahane introduced Moeen (1/20) in the Powerplay with his off-spin and it was in his first two overs that the die was cast. His second over was a maiden when he had the wicket of Devon Conway, missing one in his attempt to reverse sweep to be leg-before.
Paceman Harshit used his change of pace to induce a false shot off Rachin Ravindra and with the score reading 16/2 in 4.1 overs, the CSK innings was already in doldrums. From there on, it was a tale of Varun (2/22) and Narine (3/13) stifling the middle-order which seemed clueless against their guile.
They hit the right length, got the ball to turn just a little bit as the CSK batters failed to read them from their hands. The likes of Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tripathi, Ravindra Jadeja and ‘impact sub’ Deepak Hooda were unable to take the attack to the rivals as wickets kept falling.
But the biggest disappointment was ‘new captain’ MS Dhoni . Batting at No. 9, he missed a faster one off Narine and got caught plumb in front. He asked for a review, it went on for quite a while, the fans hoped and prayed for a hint or murmur from the bat, but there wasn’t any.
Shivam Dube at the other end was left stranded, unbeaten on 31, and helped CSK limp past the 100-mark. In the process, he pulled his hamstring and if the injury gets worse, CSK are really looking at more bleak days.
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