Chennai Tremendous Kings rode on Dewald Brevis’ magnificent half-century and Noor Ahmad’s sensible four-wicket haul to report a come-from-behind two-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders within the Indian Premier League (IPL) on the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Selecting to bat, KKR relied on its collective batting effort to publish a difficult 179 for six. In reply, CSK recovered from a precarious 60 for 5 to safe an exhilarating victory and jolt KKR’s progress.
At a divided home, reverberating with mini purple vuvuzelas and ‘CSK, CSK’ chants, CSK had a disastrous begin. Barring the fourth over, the vacationers misplaced a wicket in 5 of the primary six overs as Harshit Rana claimed two of them.
Nonetheless, Brevis (52, 25b, 4×4, 4×6), after settling down, resurrected CSK’s innings together with his astounding straight-batted strokeplay within the eleventh over as Vaibhav Arora leaked 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4. Angkrish Raghuvanshi dropped the South African within the first ball of the over, which price KKR dearly.
After Brevis, clean-hitting Influence Participant Shivam Dube (45, 40b, 2×4, 3×6) and the charismatic MS Dhoni performed their roles nicely as CSK avenged its dwelling defeat and ended its four-match dropping streak.
Earlier, captain Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine ensured one other productive PowerPlay, value 67 for one, for KKR.
Rahane (48, 33b, 4×4, 2×6) sparkled once more together with his beautiful pick-up pictures by the aerial route, predominantly on the leg-side.
Narine, who hammered 17 runs off R. Ashwin’s first over, scored a fast 26 and contributed in a helpful 58-run stand with Rahane.
Noor dealt a double blow within the eighth over by dismissing Narine and Raghuvanshi as Dhoni lived as much as his fame behind the stumps.
With some assist from the pitch, the CSK spin trio – an environment friendly Noor, who saved the batters guessing together with his craft and emerged as one of the best among the many CSK bowlers, a resilient Ashwin and an correct Ravindra Jadeja – introduced KKR’s run charge down.
After Jadeja eliminated Rahane, Manish Pandey (36 n.o., 28b, 1×4, 1×6) and Andre Russell (38, 21b, 4×4, 3×6), who once more displayed his muscle energy by plundering fours and sixes off Jadeja, Matheesha Pathirana and Noor, fashioned an important 28-ball 46-run partnership.