IPL 2021: CSK vs KKR – Ravindra Jadeja helps Chennai steal a win from KKR’s bag

Chennai Super Kings confirmed their place in the playoffs with a last-ball thriller of a win against Kolkata Knight Riders in an afternoon match in Abu Dhabi. Kolkata made 171 for 7 batting first. Chennai’s chase went till the last ball but eventually, they were able to get past the line.

Earlier in the day, KKR openers had a horrible mix-up which caused Shubman Gill’s downfall in the first over. Venkatesh Iyer made 18 runs while Rahul Tripathi pushed on well for his knock of 45 runs from 33 balls. KKR did get a good start in the powerplay, but some tidy spells by CSK bowlers helped slow down the runs flow in the middle overs. As the innings progressed towards the death, KKR batters got together to push them to a good total.

Dinesh Karthik made 26 off 11, Andre Russell made 20 off 15 while Nitish Rana finished on 37 off 27 balls as KKR finished on 171. For CSK, Ravindra Jadeja picked up one wicket for 21 runs in four overs while Shardul Thkaur ended with figures of 2 for 20 in four overs. With the bat, Chennai got off to a good start. Ruturaj Gaikwad played an excellent hand of 40 off 28 while his opening partner Faf du Plessis scored 43 from 30.

But, as the ball got older, scoring became an issue with Morgan playing all his cards right. Moeen Ali made 32 off 28, but KKR started getting wickets regularly. Each of the frontline bowlers got a wicket to get to a place where CSK needed 24 runs from the last 10 balls, with CSK six wickets down. Ravindra Jadeja went six, six, four and four to bring down the equation to 4 off the last over.

Then, Sunil Narine got two wickets in the last over to take the match till the last ball, but eventually, CSK won the match by two wickets.

Top performers:

Ravindra Jadeja: KKR had started quite well with the bat in the powerplay. They needed someone to get the run rate down and Jadeja did exactly that with his four overs. He gave only 21 runs and picked up one wicket. Later with the bat, he scored 22 runs from 8 balls to take CSK home. His innings was probably the defining part in CSK’s innings.

Ruturaj Gaikwad: The CSK opener has been on the upward rise for some time now. He scored 40 runs with the bat, giving his team an ideal start. His knock had two fours and three sixes and if we had to choose one word to define his knock, it would be elegance.

Personal achievements/records:

• Varun Chakravarthy has now got MS Dhoni bowled three times in a row in UAE. Twice on 1 and once on 11.
• Seventh-time CSK has won a run chase off the final ball of the innings – the most by a team in IPL going past six by MI

Way ahead:

Chennai will now take on Hyderabad on September 30 while Kolkata will meet Delhi on September 28.