IPL 2021 CSK v KKR Match 15: Chennai Super Kings hold off KKR charge to win thriller

Russell and Cummin’s fight back in vain as Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 18 runs.

 

Match Summary:

Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings, Indian Premier League 2021

Chennai Super Kings 220/3 (20 overs)

Kolkata Knight Riders 202/10 (19.1 overs)

Result:  Chennai Super Kings won the match by 18 runs

Scorecard

 

Match Highlights:

Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field first. Ruturaj Gayakwad looked in great touch today and he was involved in a brilliant first wicket partnership of 115 runs with Faf du Plessis. Gayakwad scored 64 runs off 42 deliveries. He carved out 6 fours and 4 monstrous sixes. Faf continued to toy with the bowlers and made sure he stayed until the end to help his team get to a big total. Moeen Ali played a cameo of 25 off 12 balls while MS Dhoni made 17 off 8 balls. Ravindra Jadeja too played his part by smashing a six off the last ball. Faf du Plessis remained unbeaten at 95 to propel the total to 220 for 3 in 20 overs.

 

FALL OF WICKETS - 115-1 (Ruturaj Gaikwad, 12.2), 165-2 (Moeen Ali, 16.3), 201-3 (MS Dhoni, 18.6)

 

Chasing 220, Kolkata Knight Riders lost 5 wickets within the powerplay overs including their captain Eoin Morgan. This brought Andre Russell at the crease and he did not wait long before punishing the poor balls. He smashed 54 off 22 balls and sparked a heartbeat into the match. He was cleaned up by Sam Curran in the 12^th over.

Dinesh Karthik continued the fight back along with Pat Cummins. After Karthik was dismissed in the 15^th over, Pat Cummins took complete charge of the chase. He was timing the ball very well and it made a near perfect sound when it hit the sweet spot of his bat. However, Pat Cummins was losing partners at the other end and taking a double was always going to be a problem.

It certainly became the problem in the end as both Varun Chakravarthy and Prasidh Krishna ran themselves out, at the non striker end, while trying to steal a couple. Hence, Kolkata Knight Riders fell short by 18 runs and Pat Cummins remained unbeaten and helpless at the other end for 66 in just 34 deliveries. 

FALL OF WICKETS - 1-1 (Shubman Gill, 0.4), 17-2 (Nitish Rana, 2.5), 27-3 (Eoin Morgan, 4.3), 31-4 (Sunil Narine, 4.6), 31-5 (Rahul Tripathi, 5.2), 112-6 (Andre Russell, 11.2), 146-7 (Dinesh Karthik, 14.6), 176-8 (Kamlesh Nagarkoti, 16.2), 200-9 (Varun Chakravarthy, 18.3), 202-10 (Prasidh Krishna, 19.1)

 

Playing XIs

 

Chennai Super Kings: Faf du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, N. Jagadeesan (wk), Robin Uthappa, MS Dhoni (c&wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, R. Sai Kishore, Mitchell Santner, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi, Josh Hazlewood, KM Asif

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun CV, Kuldeep Yadav, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna

Match Details

Start Time: 19:30

Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field first.

Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

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