CSK move one step closer to playoff qualification with win over KKR

Suresh Raina’s well-paced knock (58* off 42) overshadows Chris Lynn’s blitz (82 off 51) to help Chennai Super Kings (CSK) romp home to a 5-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 29 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. 

Barring Lynn, the other KKR batsmen struggled to get any sort of momentum. Only Nitish Rana scored more than 20 and it was one of those rare days when even Andre Russell- KKR’s biggest match-winner this season – failed. KKR were 121 for 3 after 14 overs and in the next 6 overs, managed to score just 40 more runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Tahir picked up the key wickets of Lynn, Rana, Robin Uthappa and also the big wicket of Russell to finish with 4 for 27. KKR failed to play him off successfully and in the end paid the price for this costly mistake. Tahir got good support from Mitchell Santner (1 for 30) and Shardul Thakur (2 for 18), but the KKR batmen took special liking to Ravindra Jadeja, who was plundered for 49 runs from his 4 overs.

KKR got the wickets of CSK openers Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis within the powerplay. CSK also lost Ambati Rayudu cheaply in the 10th over with the score at 61. Piyush Chawla did exactly what Tahir did for CSK, but with lack of runs on the board, saw KKR fall short. Needing a brisk innings, Raina, who overturned a LBW decision earlier in his innings, played a superb innings took control and started going after the bowlers. MS Dhoni could not take the match to the end this time after he was trapped in front by Sunil Narine at a time when CSK still needed 41 off 26. Narine conceded just 1 runs in that over, which tipped the match slightly in KKR’s favour at that point.

With Raina still at the crease, CSK were still very much in the game, but needed someone to lend him some support from the other end. He got to his fifty off 36 deliveries, but it was job only half done. With each dot ball, the pressure was mounting on Raina and CSK. However, with Ravindra Jadeja (31* off 17) taking 16 runs off Harry Gurney’s penultimate over, it was CSK needed 8 off the final over and got to their target with 2 balls to spare.

With this win, CSK have secured 14 points from 8 matches and have one foot in the playoffs already. KKR, who are still in the second position with 8 points are still 6 points behind the league leaders, but will believe they too have a good chance to making it to the top 4. 

Momentum shift

When Rana and Dinesh Karthik were dismissed by Tahir in the 11th over, KKR’s win% dipped by 10, which was the most in the entire innings, but when they hit 23 off the 14th over from Jadeja, which included three back-to-back sixes, their win% went up by 13 to 63.

As far as CSK’s innings is concerned, the wicket of Dhoni in the 16th over off Narine, which also went for just a single saw CSK’s win% drop by 23% to 35. However, after Jadeja hit Harry Gurney for 16 runs off the 19th over, CSK’s winning chances went up by 20%. The knocked the remaining runs (8) off in the next 4 deliveries.

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