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CSK vs KKR : Bowlers' Knight out

The chase didn't start off on a bright note for the Knights. Skipper Gautam Gambhir was out for a first-ball duck, giving his wicket away like he usually does, flashing outside the off stump to knick one straight to wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.

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The chase didn't start off on a bright note for the Knights. Skipper Gautam Gambhir was out for a first-ball duck, giving his wicket away like he usually does, flashing outside the off stump to knick one straight to wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.

However, his opening partner Robin Uthappa counter-attacked, taking the Chennai new-ball bowlers to a boundary hunt to race to 39 off just 17 balls. Dhoni then gave the ball to his most trusted personnel, R Ashwin, and he delivered. The off-spinner first removed the set Uthappa courtesy a smart catch by Brendon McCullum at short midwicket.

If Uthappa's shot was bad, Manish Pandey's was worse. The No. 3 batsman gifted another wicket away to Ashwin, a mistimed slog sweep straight to the hands of deep midwicket.

Chennai's spinners including Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina slowed the proceedings down, and Mohit Sharma got the reward of it in the 13th over when he removed Suryakumar Yadav. The wicket, though, belonged to Dwayne Bravo, who pulled off a spectacular low, running, one-handed catch to make it 76/4.

Earlier, it was some disciplined bowling performance from the Knights that restricted the mighty Super Kings to a modest 134/6.

Andre Russell (2/26) and Piyush Chawla (2/26) were the pick of the bowlers with two wickets apiece, while Brad Hogg (1/18) snapped one after Gambhir won the toss and elected to field.

Dwayne Smith (25) and McCullum (19) gave Chennai a blistering start as they put KKR attack to the sword and picked up fours and sixes at will to amass 38 in four overs.

Gambhir then introduced Chawla into the attack and the leg-spinner dismissed McCullum after trapping him in front of the wicket, though replays suggested there might've been an inside edge. The New Zealand skipper blasted three fours and one six in his 14-ball innings.

Raina, however, seemed unfazed as he sent Chawla over the fence with a powerful slog sweep over square leg in the last ball of the over.

Spinner Brad Hogg, who replaced the dropped Sunil Narine, and Russell then checked the run flow with some tight bowling as Smith and Raina looked for singles and twos.

In the ninth over, Smith was dismissed by a brilliant throw by Pathan who hit the stumps after the batsmen were trying to steal a quick single. The West Indies batsman hit three boundaries and a six in his 19-ball stay.

In the next over, Russell sent Raina packing when he induced an edge from the batsman with wicketkeeper Uthappa taking the catch as Chennai were reduced to 67/3. Skipper MS Dhoni (3) also didn't stay long as they slumped to 81/4.

Chawla then returned to dismiss West Indies all-rounder Bravo (5), who looking for a big shot but ended up giving a simple catch to Yadav at long-off.

With wickets tumbling, Faf du Plessis and Jadeja (15) needed some big hits but the duo failed to raise the run-rate with Hogg cleaning up the latter with a quicker ball in the 19th over.

—With PTI inputs

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