Cool Chennai chase down victory yet again

The great chasers of the IPL, the experienced and ice-cool Chennai Super Kings, did it again at a sweltering Eden Gardens on Sunday afternoon when they beat the Kolkota Knight Riders by five wickets with two balls to spare.

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It was their seventh win in eight matches and they owed much to their legspinner, Imran Tahir, who had earlier taken his best IPL figures of 4/27.

With this win, Chennai consolidated their position at the top of the log and almost sealed their place in the final playoffs.

Facing a victory target of 162 after the Knight Riders totalled 161 for eight, Chennai didn’t need the usual finishing heroics of their captain, MS Dhoni, on this occasion. Instead, it was Suresh Raina (58* from 42) and Ravindra Jadeja (31* from 17) who saw them home with an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 41 off 25 balls.

With two overs to go, the visitors needed 24 for victory and it was Jadeja who took them to the brink of success with three consecutive fours off English paceman Harry Gurney as 16 runs came off his over. Legspinner Piyush Chawla bowled the final over but a Jadeja slash for four off his first delivery effectively wrapped up the match for Chennai.

The result of the match was never obvious, however, with Chennai’s spinners, Chawla and Sunil Narine, doing an excellent job in restraining the batsmen for much of the time. They both took two wickets, with Narine particularly impressive (2/19 in four overs) capturing the key scalp of Dhoni, leg before wicket, after the CSK captain had earlier had treatment for a lower back problem.

Earlier in the innings, Faf du Plessis (24) and Kedar Jadhav (20) both threatened, but Narine and Chawla accounted for them just as they looked ready to launch and it needed the experienced pair of Raina – who scored his first IPL 50 this year – and Jadeja to calmly see their team to victory.

Chennai were superb with ball in hand – with Tahir the key – and in the field during KKR’s innings. Inspired by Faf du Plessis, who took four catches in the outfield, the visitors were brilliant in the field as they gobbled up everything that came their way.

It took a superb 82 in 51 balls by Kolkota opener Chris Lynn to get his team to their moderate total after they had been sent in to bat by Dhoni, whose decision to chase was once again justified.

Muscular Queenslander Lynn dominated the scoring while he was at the crease, smashing seven fours and six sixes in his innings. His effort was all the more admirable for the right-hand batsman had had to drag himself out of bed after suffering from flu.

But the story at the other end was more worrying for the visitors as only Nitish Rana went past 20 as wickets fell with regularity.

Du Plessis was the headline act in the field for Chennai, clinging onto three towering hits into the deep as well as sprinting and diving to catch Robin Uthappa. Lynn was dismissed by a superb catch at deep square leg by Shardul Thakur while substitute fielder Dhruv Shorey dived forward at long-on to help Tahir get rid of the prize wicket of Andre Russell for just 10.

Aside from the masterful Tahir, paceman Thakur also impressed with the ball, capturing 2/18 in his four overs.

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KOLKOTA KNIGHT RIDERS: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Harry Gurney

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Faf du Plessis, Shane Watson, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (capt, wk), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Imran Tahir, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar