IPL-2023: Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs: Top spot in points table
Chennai Super Kings defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs at Eden Gardens. Put into bat first, Chennai posted a mammoth total of 235 runs for the loss of four wickets in stipulated 20 overs.
In reply, hosts were restricted to 186 for loss of eight wickets. This win helped Chennai take the top spot in IPL 2023 table with 10 points to their credit.
Chennai Super Kings posted the highest IPL score at the Eden Gardens to clinically defeat the Kolkata Knight Riders in the second match of Sunday’s double-header. After posting a massive 235-4 on the board, courtesy explosive half-centuries from Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube and Devon Conway, and an adequate bowling performance that was certainly covered up by the show-stopping batting performance. Let’s talk about that first…
The score might have read 59-0 after the field restrictions were lifted at the end of the sixth over, but Lady Luck had showed early signs of supporting the Super Kings, with several edged boundaries and even a top-edged six in the first six overs, that gave the visitors the momentum to lay the platform and get off to a flier.
The new ball was swinging, and it showed that KKR were frustrated, as full-tosses, even high ones were creamed away by the Super Kings to add further to the woes of the Knight Riders. After the powerplay, there was no luck. It was pure stroke-making, particularly from Gaikwad, who creamed Sunil Narine, the trusted miser of the team.
However, the wicket of Gaikwad brought a lull, where Rahane and Conway ticked the score over, managing only 36 runs in 27 balls before Conway fell for a 40-ball 56. It was the lull before a rampage.
The Rahane Rampage
It all began with two massive sixes from Dube, at the end of the over in which Chakravarthy got rid of Conway. It was then that Rahane went on a rampage, destroying everyone in his way. Umesh Yadav was the first victim, hammered for 22 runs in an over that read 6,6,4,1,4,1. Granted, the last four was hit by his partner, but both Rahane and Dube had hit Turbo mode. They hammered the KKR bowlers, and spared only Suyash Sharma to an extent. 85 runs came off 32 balls, with Rahane getting to his fifty off 24 balls, and Dube, 20 balls.
When Khejroliya finally got rid of Dube, it looked like the show was over. However, it was a case of temporary relief for the Knight Riders — Ravindra Jadeja joined Rahane to launch another brutal assault on KKR at the death, with the pair hammering 38 off 13 deliveries. Rahane’s ramp shot over third man to a full delivery was a testament to his confidence, as he ended with an unprecedented 29-ball 71*. The massacre shot the CSK score past 200 and approached a record total during the Jadeja-Rahane stand (Their highest total in IPL is 246-5). They fell short of the record, but they did end up posting the highest total at Eden Gardens — 235-4 in 20 overs.
A nightmare start for KKR
They had their trustee No-11-turned-opener Sunil Narine to open the innings once again in a desperate search for a flier. The result was a three-ball duck as Akash Singh knocked back Narine’s off-stump, before Deshpande got rid of Jagadeesan to have KKR reeling at 1-2. Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana trundled along, kept the scoreboard ticking, but were nowhere near matching the required rate. Iyer was trapped in front by Moeen, and soon after Rana departed with the score at 70-4, and the run-rate just under nine — the ideal rate being just short of 12 runs per over. Things were looking hopeless for KKR and they were staring at disappointment in front of their homecrowd…
A Roy-al massacre
Jason Roy was batting out of position. But it didn’t matter. He saw an off-spinner, and he clubbed three consecutive sixes off him — never mind that Moeen Ali was his England teammate. However, a stand of 65 off 37 was still not enough to keep up with the skyrocketing required rate, and Roy eventually succumbed to the pressure, with KKR’s run-rate still under 10. Even the recent heroics of Rinku Singh looked pale in the face of the Brobdingnagian target, but he had been quietly striking boundaries at the other end during the course of Jason Roy’s Carnage.
With the humdingers that the IPL has served up lately, it made sense that the universe was bound to script another dramatic finish. And surely, Russell and Rinku were the pair to pull it off. It was not to be, though, as Russell and Wiese departed in quick succession. With the required rate hitting 30 at this point, it was too tall an order for even Rinku Singh, designated miracle worker of the team. Eventually, KKR fell comfortably short of their target by 50 runs, and CSK ended the weekend by reaching the summit of the points table
Scores: Chennai Super Kings 235-4 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 71*, Devon Conway 56, Shivam Dube 50, Kulwant Khejroliya 2-44, Suyash Sharma 1-29) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 186-8 (Jason Roy 61, Rinku Singh 53*, Maheesh Theekshana 2-32, Tushar Deshpande 2-43) by 49 runs