Kolkata Knight Riders produced an inspired bowling effort to restrict Chennai Super Kings to a lowly 103 for 9 in an Indian Premier League match here on Friday. Sent into bat, CSK never really got going as they lost wickets at regular intervals to be limited to their lowest total at home. Shivam Dube ( 31 not out), Vijay Shankar (29) and Rahul Tripathi (16) were the main run getters for CSK.
“No excuses for this,” Ravi Shastri was blunt in his analysis while doing commentary for Star Sports.
Sunil Narine didn’t concede a single boundary in his miserly spell of 3-13 as a clinical performance of Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowlers helped them restrict a listless Chennai Super Kings to a below-par 103/9, their lowest total at their home venue MA Chidambaram Stadium, here on Friday.
On a black-soil pitch, spin dictated terms from the word go, Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy and Moeen Ali, brought to counter left-handed batters, picked six wickets collectively as CSK’s batting never got going.
CSK wanted to bat first after losing the toss, but didn’t take full advantage of their decision as they could never break free from the disciplined bowling by KKR bowlers. It took Shivam Dube’s unbeaten 29-ball 31 to save CSK from being all out for their lowest total (79) in IPL’s history.
Devon Conway began by taking two boundaries off pacer Vaibhav Arora, before being dismissed for 12 when his attempt to reverse-sweep off Moeen resulted in him being trapped lbw in a wicket-maiden over. In the next over, CSK were dealt another blow when Rachin Ravindra miscued a slog off Harshit Rana and was caught at cover.
KKR could have got another wicket if Vijay Shankar wasn’t dropped by Moeen at mid-off when on zero. From there, Shankar pulled and lofted Chakaravarthy for boundaries, before hoicking Moeen over mid-wicket for six. Shankar’s charmed life continued when Venkatesh Iyer dropped him at mid-wicket on 20.
With PTI and IANS inputs
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