IPL-2023: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in Chennai

In IPL Cricket, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by six wickets at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Chasing a target of 145 set by Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders crossed the target in 18.3 overs loosing four wickets.

A shrewd spin choke followed by a smart partnership between Rinku Singh and Nitish Rana powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a comfortable six-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk on Sunday (May 14). The result keeps the visitors’ playoff hopes alive, though their fate isn’t in their hands anymore.

It seemed so at the time when MS Dhoni won the coin flip and chose to bat. However, the surface was a bit tacky and it meant that strokemaking wasn’t straightforward. There was also a lot of turn on offer – something that KKR’s spin trio exploited to perfection.

Given what had transpired earlier in the season, KKR looked primed for another batting collapse. With the pitch playing tricks and the Chepauk crowd vociferously behind CSK, pressure was immense on the visitors. But KKR had the two best men possible out there and they came to the party. Skipper Rana is an excellent player of spin, especially finger spin while Rinku Singh has been the form batter for KKR this year.

A 99-run stand ensued with both batters getting to their fifties and they hardly gave CSK a sniff except a catch of Rana that was put down by Theekshana in the deep. Rinku was the aggressor initially while his captain steadily upped his tempo as well to quickly snuff out any hopes that CSK would have had of defending the total.

Scores: KKR 147/4 (Rana 57*, Rinku 54, Chahar 3-27) beat CSK 144/6 (Dube 48*, Conway 30, Narine 2-15) by six wickets.