There were no happy returns as captain for the legendary MS Dhoni. Taking over as skipper of the Chennai Super Kings after the injury-enforced absence of Ruturaj Gaikwad, his team were dismantled by eight wickets in just 10.1 overs by the Kolkata Knight Riders in their Tata IPL match at Chepauk on Friday night.
Chasing 104 to win after restricting CSK to a meagre 103 for nine – their lowest total at their former fortress – KKR strolled to victory on the back of a breezy opening partnership of 46 in 4.1 overs between Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine. De Kock was then bowled by Anshul Kamboj for 23 but Narine, who had earlier captured a brilliant 3/13 in his four overs with his mystery wrist-spin, smashed 44 in 18 balls (2x4s, 5x6s) to help take his team to victory.
At the end of the game, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane was unbeaten on an elegant 15 along with partner Rinku Singh as KKR improved their net run rate as they reached their target with a massive 59 balls to spare.
The only encouraging sign for CSK was the form of their left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad. Noor castled Narine and looked in prime form, taking 1/8 in his two overs. It was way too little, too late, for the home team.
It was CSK’s fourth consecutive defeat and third loss in a row at Chepauk, another record they will not be happy with. KKR, by contrast, moved up to the top half of the table with their third victory.
The match was effectively lost in the first overs for the home team on account of their timid, unsure approach with the bat after KKR had won the toss and inserted their opponents.
The CSK batting was unhinged by excellent bowling from KKR’s spinners, with remarkable returns for Narine, Varun Chakravarthy (2/22 in four) and Moeen Ali (1/20 in four). That adds up to a collective 6/55 in 12 overs for the spinners.
The pace bowlers also did themselves plenty of good with Harshit Rana (2/16 off four) and Vaibhav Arora (1/31 off four) both excelling.
It was obvious from the start that the CSK batters looked bereft of confidence with openers Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra only scoring 16 in three overs before Conway was leg before trying to reverse-sweep Moeen. Ravindra went immediately afterwards getting a leading edge to Harshit as the ball seemed to stick in the surface of what looked to be a slow pitch (until KKR batted).
The team’s biggest partnership was that of Rahul Triparthi (16) and Vijay Shankar who put on 43 in 33 balls. Even then, Shankar was dropped twice, both easy chances, on 0 and 20, before he finally departed, caught at deep backward square leg.
Even Dhoni, greeted like a superstar by the home team’s yellow army of fans, could do nothing about his team’s abject batting performance when he arrived at the crease with the total on 72 for seven. Despite the high expectations of his adoring fans, he quickly fell leg before to Narine for a single.
The second biggest partnership of the innings, in fact, was an unbroken last-wicket partnership of 24 in 16 balls between Shivam Dube and Anshul Kamboj. At least Dube, who finished unbeaten on 31 in 29 balls, belted the last two balls for four to end the sorry innings with something of a flourish.
It wasn’t nearly enough, and former champions CSK, now lodged at the bottom of the log, have a lot of ground to make up if they are to feature in this tournament.
CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi, Shivam Dube, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (capt, wk), R Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Moeen Ali, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy
