Kolkata Knight Riders are still struggling and have not won a match yet. This was their fourth loss in the tournament. Chennai Super Kings are in good form and have now won two matches in a row. They played better in all areas and won the match by 32 runs.
Earlier, KKR won the toss and chose to bowl first. Sanju Samson started strongly by hitting boundaries in the first three balls, giving CSK a great start. Ruturaj Gaikwad is still not in form and got out early for just 7 runs.
CSK dominate KKR with strong batting and Noor Ahmad’s brilliant bowling performance
The pair of Ayush Mhatre (38 off 17) and Samson (41 off 29) added a quickfire 47 off just 22 balls for the second wicket, making full use of the powerplay as CSK raced to 72/2 at the end of 6 overs. KKR did manage to pull things back in the middle overs, thanks to their spin trio of Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy.
However, Ajinkya Rahane couldn’t rotate his bowlers effectively, with two of his spinners not completing their full quota. Useful contributions from Dewald Brevis (41 off 29), Sarfaraz Khan (23 off 18) and Shivam Dube (13* off 12) helped CSK post a strong 192/5 in their 20 overs.
Kartik Tyagi was the pick of the bowlers with 2/35, while Sunil Narine was economical with 1/21 and Vaibhav Arora (1/55) had an expensive outing. In response, KKR promoted Narine to open alongside Finn Allen, who came in as the impact substitute.
Allen’s struggles continued as he fell cheaply once again. Narine looked positive and struck a few boundaries but departed for 24 off 17 balls, as KKR registered the third-lowest powerplay score of the season at 36/2. The middle phase saw Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Rahane struggle to keep the scoreboard moving, consuming too many deliveries and building pressure.
Both fell in quick succession, with Raghuvanshi scoring 27 off 19 and Rahane 28 off 22. Rinku Singh and Cameron Green continued their disappointing run with the bat, departing for 6 and 0 respectively. There was a bit of resistance lower down the order from Rovman Powell (31*) and Ramandeep Singh (35), but it wasn’t enough.
The CSK seamers executed their plans brilliantly at the death, comfortably defending the total and sealing a convincing win by 32 runs. Noor Ahmad was outstanding with the ball, finishing with impressive figures of 3/21.