Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 11 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders’ spinners Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali’s exceptional bowling performance restricted the five-time champions Chennai Super Kings to 103/9 in their 20 overs at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday.
The Knight Riders’ skipper, Ajinkya Rahane, won the toss and elected to bowl first at the Chepauk.
Left-hand batters Rachin Ravindra (4 runs off 9 balls) and Devon Conway (12 runs from 11 balls) came in the middle to open the innings for the hosts. Both players added just 16 runs, as Conway was sent back to the pavilion in the fourth over on the bowling of off-spinner Moeen Ali.
After Conway’s dismissal, right-hand batter Rahul Tripathi (16 runs in 22 balls) came out to bat in the middle, along with Rachin. In the fifth over, at the score of 16, the Super Kings lost their second wicket as Rachin was sent back to the dressing room by right-arm seamer Harshit Rana.
Following Rachin’s dismissal, right-hand batter Vijay Shankar came out next for the CSK team. Both players scored the team’s 50-run mark in the 8th over. Tripathi and Shankar built a partnership of 43 runs from 33 balls as Shankar was sent back in the 10 over on the bowling of mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy.
Batters Ravichandran Ashwin (1), Ravindra Jadeja (0), impact player Deepak Hooda (0) and franchise skipper MS Dhoni (1) failed to make the mark in the clash as they were dismissed cheaply.
In the end, the left-hamd batter Shivam Dube (31* runs off 29 balls) scored some crucial runs for the hosts, which took them to over the 100-run mark. After the completion of 20 overs, the Chennai-based franchise finished at 103 runs for the loss of nine wickets with Dube and Anshul Kamboj unbeaten on the crease (3 runs from 3 balls).
For the visitors, three wickets were snapped by Sunil Narine (3/13), two wickets each were grabbed by Harshit Rana (2/16) & Varun Chakravarthy (2/22) and one wicket each was bagged by Vaibhav Arora (1/31) & Moeen Ali (1/20) in their respective spells of four overs.
Brief Score: Chennai Super Kings 103/9 in 20 overs (Shivam Dube 31*, Vijay Shankar 29; Sunil Narine 3/13) vs Kolkata Knight Riders. (ANI)
