IPL 2018: Match 33, KKR vs CSK, Review - Clinical hosts trump the table-toppers

Shubman Gill and Dinesh Karthik finished the game with a fantastic unbeaten partnership of 83 runs.

Published - 03 May 2018, 23:34 IST | Updated - 03 May 2018, 23:34 IST

2 Min Read

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated the table-toppers Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 6 wickets at the Eden Gardens by chasing down the total of 178 runs with utter ease. The youngster Shubman Gill showed his class at number 4 who remained unbeaten until the end and won the game for them. The Men in Yellow struggled to defend the total as some shoddy fielding also didn’t help their cause. However, the bowlers of the home side were also excellent who used their variations cleverly and restricted them to a decent total.

The skipper of KKR, Dinesh Karthik, won the toss and invited the visitors to bat first as they were jolted by the back injury to Nitish Rana as Rinku Singh replaced him. The Men in Yellow went in with an unchanged playing XI which had won the game against Delhi Daredevils (DD) a couple of days ago.

CSK off to a flyer

Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson opened the innings for CSK as the trend of opening the bowling with the leggie Piyush Chawla was continued by the home side. Though the duo gave a quickfire start to their team as the former took the lead this time around and played a brief cameo. But a brilliant googly from the same bowler proved to be his undoing as he completely missed the line of the ball and the bails lit up. Suresh Raina then was welcomed gleefully by KKR with some freebies as he raced away to 16 to kickstart his innings.

Spinners pull it back

At 85/1 after 10 overs the visitors looked set to take on the bowling attack with 9 wickets in hand in the last 10 overs. But the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine bowled beautifully to keep the batsmen guessing about their variations. The result was the wickets of Watson and then Raina who perished while going for the big shots courtesy the pressure created by them. Soon Ambati Rayudu followed the suit with Narine bowling an off-break delivery to which he tried to run the ball towards third man for a single. Instead, the batsman missed and was castled.

Dhoni blitz helps the visitors

MS Dhoni came in to bat in the 12th over after the fall of Raina’s wicket even as the spinners were ruling the proceedings. The in-form skipper had to curb his instincts further today as Rayudu also fell in the 15th over. But he managed to unfurl a few big shots after a relatively slow start to give the much-needed impetus to the innings. To add to the misery of the bowlers, he was dropped by Shubman Gill in the 18th over off Yadav. Dhoni also slammed Mitchell Johnson out of the park twice which helped their cause.

However, the last over was bowled well by Chawla and still unluckily went for 15 runs as CSK finished on a competitive score of 177 runs for the loss of 5 wickets after their 20 overs.

Bouncer barrage upfront

Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine began the chase for the Men in Purple and Gold as the visitors started the bouncer barrage on them. Lungi Ngidi‘s first ball was thudded into the gloves of the former who least expected it and fended awkwardly. The same bowler scalped him off the final ball of the over as he missed a pull only to inside edge it which carried to the slip after clipping his pads. The joy would’ve doubled if Ravindra Jadeja had caught Narine in the next over off KM Asif. He was dropped twice off consecutive deliveries and he pounced on.

Narine freed his arms then to chance his luck and it came off as he was finally dismissed by Jadeja but not before scoring 32 runs. Meanwhile, Gill had got his eye in who was joined by Rinku as they consolidated a bit to add 33 runs together. Though the latter was bowled by Harbhajan Singh to bring in the skipper Karthik.

Gill shows his class

Shubman Gill proved his class after batting at number 4 for the first time this season. He could well be the contender for the position for a long time now. His batting flourished under pressure as he attacked KM Asif, the newbie, in the 15th over to eventually finish the contest in the game. His muscled pull over the deep square leg fielder off the first ball of the over had set it up for a big one as a total of 19 runs were churned out in that over. Soon, he brought up his maiden IPL fifty as the dug-out stood up in applause for him.

Karthik too played his part in the partnership by picking timely boundaries as his team got over the line in the 18th over itself. The chase was perfectly timed by KKR as they caught their opponents off guard by not taking the game deep. It was a smart move given that they had Ngidi and Bravo in the end and attacked Asif which helped their cause.