Chennai Super Kings won by 18 runs as KKR were all out on 202 owing to Andre Russell and Pat Cummins' innings after they were 31/5 in the powerplay.
Chennai Super Kings have won their third game in a row in the 14th edition of the IPL after they survived an onslaught from Kolkata Knight Riders' middle and lower order featuring Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik and Pat Cummins and prevailing by 18 runs to go to the top of the points table.
CSK amassed 220 runs batting first owing to a sensational opening partnership between Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad of 115 runs. Gaikwad got out after playing a well-compiled knock of 64 runs off just 42 balls, but du Plessis continued on his merry run. The incoming batsmen kept chipping in with useful contributions, whether it was Moeen Ali with a 12-ball 25 or skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni with an 8-ball 17 or Ravindra Jadeja hitting a six off the only ball he faced, the run-rate never took a hit whenever CSK lost wickets.
Du Plessis stayed unbeaten on 95 runs off just 60 balls as CSK finished with a monumental score of 220 runs on the board. CSK had KKR reduced to 31/5 inside the powerplay with Deepak Chahar picking up four massive wickets and Lungi Ngidi chipping in with the wicket of Rahul Tripathi.
However, what followed was some astonishing batting on a good Wankhede surface with the dew settling in nicely. Andre Russell didn't want to let the powerplay overs go waste, so he accumulated 14 runs off the remaining four balls of the first six, hitting two fours and a six. After which, wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik joined him and both started smashing everything.
Russell was severe on Shardul Thakur, hitting three sixes and a four in the 10th over of the innings as the match, which was looking like one-way traffic, was suddenly a box office where Russell was the protagonist. He hit Ravindra Jadeja for a six and brought up his fifty in just 21 balls.
But, it was Sam Curran who had the last laugh, who got the ball to go through to Russell's leg-stump. However, the entertainment wasn't over. Karthik hit a six and a four in the same over as KKR were down but not completely out.
Lungi Ngidi scalped out the price wicket of Karthik and everyone thought, this was it surely but not to be as Cummins had other ideas. Cummins kept hitting boundaries to keep the net run-rate in check and the moment of the game came in the 16th over of the innings where he tore into Curran hitting four sixes and accumulated 30 runs off the over to bring the equation down to 45 needed off 24 balls.
However, Cummins ran out of partners at the other end as both Varun Chakravarthy and Prasidh Krishna got run-out when they came charging for the second run and ultimately they fell 18 runs short of the target.
By the virtue of this win, CSK pipped RCB to go to the top of the table with 6 points in 8 games, with a better net run rate.
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 "Chennai Super Kings")
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