IPL 2019: Match 23 – CSK vs KKR – Who Said What

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) went to the top of the points table in the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) with their fourth victory this season at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. MS Dhoni and Co defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven wickets. Their bowlers stepped up and delivered and the chase was pretty much a formality for their batters. Meanwhile, KKR slipped one place down to the second spot.

Russell- KKR’s lone warrior

The pitch at the Chepauk turned out to be a sluggish one and Knights’ batsmen couldn’t get going and slumped to 44/5 in the ninth over. Deepak Chahar ripped the heart out of the KKR batting with the prized wickets of Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana in quick succession. Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik got into double-figures, but even they couldn’t go on and convert their starts.

Imran Tahir continued with his wicket-taking spree with Karthik and Shubman Gill’s scalps. Thereafter, Andre Russell carried the visitors single-handedly. At one point in time, the visiting team was in danger of getting bowled out with the score at 79/9. Nevertheless, Russell showed nerves of steel and took his team to a score of 108. The Jamaican couldn’t time the leather properly but ended up with 50 off 44.

Not much trouble for CSK

The run-chase wasn’t expected to pose much of a threat to the Super Kings. Shane Watson came out firing on all cylinders and scored 17 runs from nine balls with two fours and one six. Sunil Narine got his wicket in the third over. Suresh Raina hit a four and a six and he succumbed to an impressive catch by Piyush Chawla off the bowling of Narine. The Uttar Pradesh-born cricketer scored 14 from 13 balls.

Faf du Plessis and Ambati Rayudu kept chipping away at the target and cobbled together a partnership of 46 runs from 58 balls. Keeping up to the required run-rate was never an issue for the hosts. Rayudu got to a rather disappointing stroke after getting 21 runs. At the other end, Du Plessis didn’t throw his wicket away and remained not out at 45 from 44 balls to see his team through to glory at home.

Dinesh Karthik, the KKR captain, said

Definitely not enough runs on the board. These are tricky games and you don’t know how many runs to set with the dew and everything, but when the game finishes you feel you should gave got 20 more runs, so it’s always a catch-22 situation. When you lose four wickets in the powerplay, you are always behind the eight-ball. Then you have to consolidate and probably hope to go well towards the end, but we couldn’t do that.

But credit to Russell, he showed a lot of maturity and I am pleased with the way he’s shaping up. I was happy with the general attitude, I like the way we tried defending a small total, especially the spinners with the wet ball. I don’t think it was a lack of concentration from our side with the bat. We have been on the road for three games, but have won two in five days and we shouldn’t be too greedy.

We’ve tried hard and as a captain I am okay with not coming up on top everyday. When we return, we need to regroup. Two good teams playing and it should be a good match against Delhi next. (Message to the team) Enjoy, forget today, next game is a new game, a new day.

MS Dhoni, the CSK captain, said

I have been here for a long time. The crowd loves CSK. It is a special connection and they have adopted me. Losing Bravo, it is slightly difficult for us to get the combination. I don’t think we want to be playing on these tracks. It becomes too low scoring. The age is on their side. Bhajji has done well in whatever games he has played.

I have fallen back on Tahir and he has done the job. He has confidence in me. He has got a very good flipper. He is someone who if you tell that this is the right pace to bowl on, he does it most of the times. I feel its important not to have the same plans for batters.

Deepak Chahar, the Player of the Match, said

I think I knew we are going to play a lot of games at Chennai. So, I worked on my slower ball and yorkers. I spend a lot of time in the dressing room with MS while playing TT and I have got to learn a lot. With Bravo injured, I have got opportunity to bowl at the death.

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