In-form Chennai Super Kings climbed to the top of the IPL points table with a 2-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in their league match at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday
Chennai: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) marched to the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) points table with a 2-run victory over defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders in their league match at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday.
Chasing 135 to win, Kolkata Knight Riders had a great chance to
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The home team may have had their backs to the wall after having set a target of 135, but their bowlers bowled their heart out to overcome the visitors.
Kolkata started their chase badly, losing their skipper Gautam Gambhir to a golden duck to pacer Ishwar Pandey. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals as they lost steam and ended at 132 for 9 from their allotted 20 overs.
Robin Uthappa with a 17-ball 39 and Ryan ten Doeschate with a 28-ball 38 were the only saving graces for the visitors.
R Ashwin with figures of 2 for 5 from his two overs and Dwayne Bravo with 3 for 22 from three overs were the standout bowlers for CSK.
The Super Kings have now won six of their last seven games in the tourney to top the table.
CSK, who had outclassed Kings XI Punjab in the last match with a huge 97-run win, outclassed KKR's with a disciplined bowling performance.
A dejected Gautam Gambhir walks back after being dismissed for a golden duck by CSK's Ishwar Pandey at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday. Pic/PTI
Earlier, a stupendous bowling performance from defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders restricted batting power-house Chennai Super Kings to just 134/6.
It was a collective effort from the KKR bowlers as they maintained a nagging line and length and kept CSK on a tight leash. While the pacers where brilliant upfront, the tweakers too were able to cast a web on the CSK batsman. Faf du Plessis top scored with an unbeaten 29 from 29 balls.
For the Knights, Piyush Chawla and Russell got two wickets each, while veteran 44-year-old chinaman bowler Brad Hogg picked up another.
The Super Kings got off to a bit of a flyer courtesy their hard-hitting openers again. Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Bravo stitched together a 42 run partnership in 4.3 overs.
The Knights finally got the break-through when McCullum (19) failed to pick a Piyush Chawla googly and was adjudged leg before.
The innings stuttered after the jolt, as both Smith (25) and number three Suresh Raina (17) quickly followed the New Zealander into the dugout.
After being 48/1 from five overs, CSK managed to get to 73/3 at the halfway stage.
South African du Plessis and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (3) looked to consolidate, but Russell struck again as he induced the Indian to glove one to the keeper off a fiery bouncer.
Darren Bravo (5) too lasted only a few balls, but Ravindra Jadeja and du Plessis took the total past the 100-run mark in the 16th over.
Australian pacer Pat Cummins then bowled a tight 18th over which yielded just 6 runs, Hogg followed it up with another crafty over cleaning Jadeja (15) up and giving away just three runs.
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