IPL 2019: Match 29 – KKR vs CSK – Who Said What

Just halfway through the season and CSK has more or less qualified for the playoffs. It’s never been such a cakewalk for the ‘Men in Yellow’ but they have done so well this season. An abundance of options both in the batting as well as the batting has made this possible for the three-time champions. Despite not having the services of someone like Lungi Ngidi or a DJ Bravo, they have been quite clinical.

Building from strength to strength, they have defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for the second time in the season by a margin of five wickets. In the first innings, Imran Tahir did a fabulous job with the ball and picked up four crucial scalps of the opposition including that of the dangerous Andre Russell.

Chris Lynn did the bulk of the scoring for KKR in this game. He alone mustered 82 runs while no other batsman managed to accrue more than 21 runs. Competing Tahir, Shardul Thakur did well and picked up two wickets. The home team could only get 161 runs on the board at the end of 20 overs.

Suresh Raina anchors, Ravindra Jadeja finishes

With the kind of bowling line-up that KKR has got, this should have been a cakewalk for CSK. However, the spinners brought the home team into the game and put pressure on the opposition. At one stage, the visitors were reduced to 81/4 with the required run rate quite high.

But, Suresh Raina finally delivered for the team and scored an unbeaten 58 from 42 balls. Since MS Dhoni got out early in his innings, the responsibility of finishing fell on Ravindra Jadeja. The all-rounder did really well and raced to 31 from 17 balls to help CSK register a 5-wicket win. Chennai hunted down 38 runs in the last three overs with two balls to spare.

Imran Tahir, the Man of the Match, said

We won the match and that’s the most pleasing thing for me. My plan was simple, I was trying to bowl wicket-to-wicket and was forcing them (batsmen) to make the mistake. I was happy with the way it came out, got a few wickets. It’s all hard work. My wife and kid always support me a lot. I have been working hard and playing with MSD, I have been learning a lot and I am really happy to be a part of CSK.

MS Dhoni, the CSK captain, said

Got a back spasm. It’s a bit tight right now. Hopefully, it’ll get better. The bowling was very good and as a complete team, we bowled really well. With Tahir getting us those timely wickets. Lynn had a good day but we kept taking wickets from the other end. We bat quite deep, so we have to take the chances.

Depending on the opposition, we keep changing our plans. I wanted to go after the bowlers early and it paid off today. Me along with Raina, I think it was a good chase. There were a few soft dismissals today but if you get a start it’s important to carry on and finish it off. You need to be there till the end. Overall it was a good performance by us.

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