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Opener’s 95 n.o. and swing bowler’s four reduce Kolkata to its knees; free-swinging Russell and Cummins threaten a miracle but 221 proves a bridge too far
Riding on Faf du Plessis’ brilliant unbeaten 95 (60b, 9×4, 4×6) and Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 64 (42b, 6×4, 4×6), Chennai Super Kings continued its winning momentum beating Kolkata Knight Riders by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The openers came together for a 115-run partnership to help CSK post a mammoth score of 220 for three.
However, the three-time champion’s third win did not come easy as Knight Riders gave CSK a run for its money.
The chase got off disastrously after Deepak Chahar ran through the top-order with four wickets in his first three overs. When Lungi Ngidi had Rahul Tripathi caught behind, KKR was struggling at 31 for five.
Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik and Pat Cummins then came out all guns blazing, staging a brilliant counterattack.
Russell slammed a 22-ball 54 with six sixes and added 81 in just six overs with Dinesh Karthik. The West Indian was brutal on Shardul Thakur scoring 24 runs in just one over, hitting three sixes and a four.
However, in the 12th over, Russell inexplicably tried to move away from a back of length delivery from Sam Curran only to see the ball clip the bail.
Karthik did his part with a 24-ball 40 before he was trapped leg-before off a slower one from Ngidi.
Just when CSK thought it had things under control, Cummins unleashed his fury on Curran, smashing the left-arm medium-pacer for 30 in the 16th overs with four sixes and a four.
The Australian did well to shepherd the lower-order by farming the strike and landed some lusty blows to make an unbeaten 66 (34b, 4×4, 6×6) and kept his side in the game till the last over before running out of partners.
Earlier, Du Plessis and Gaikwad started positively, going after Pat Cummins and Varun Chakravarthy to put the pressure on KKR straight away.
The Maharashtra opener played some delightful drives through the off-side and was quick on his feet when challenged with the short-pitched ball, playing some well-executed pull shots.
Even as Gaikwad was taking the KKR attack on, du Plessis was not far behind and assumed charge of the innings towards its latter half. The South African played an array of shots, be it standing tall and clearing the straight boundaries or getting down on one knee for his trademark scoop over short fine-leg.
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