Picture Credit : BCCI
Powered by youngster Shubman Gill, who smashed his maiden Indian Premier League half-century and Sunil Narine producing an all-round performance helped guide Kolkata Knight Riders register a six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings, in Kolkata.
Gill, scored an impressive unbeaten 57 off 36 balls to power KKR to victory, with 14 balls to spare. He shared an unbroken fifth wicket partnership of 83 runs from 36 balls with skipper Dinesh Karthik, who slammed a quick-fire 45 not out from just 18 balls. KKR reached 180/4 in 17.4 overs .
The much needed victory took KKR — 10 points from nine matches — to the third spot ahead of Kings XI Punjab on net run rate.
Earlier, KKR spinners impressed with Narine leading from the front before Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s power towards the end an unbeaten 43 helped CSK reach 177 for five.
KKR spinners impressed with Narine leading from the front before Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s unbeaten 43 propped CSK’s total to 177 for five.
Narine’s 11th and 15th overs were crucial as the Trinidadian dismissed his Watson (36) for the seventh time in T20 matches and also removed Rayudu (21), the two leading run getters of CSK.
Suresh Raina (31) also failed to score big before as he was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav. It was then left to Captain Dhoni to finish CSK’s innings on a high.
Ravindra Jadeja flopped again. He dropped two catches and wasted many balls while batting scoring 12 off 12. It was indeed strange why Jadeja despite being totally out of form is being sent ahead of Dwayne bravo by the CSK team management. It has cost them heavily and will continue to do if they still bank on woefully out of touch Ravindra Jadeja. Time skipper Dhoni and Coach Stephen Fleming take a call on Jadeja’s presence in the playing XI
