IPL 8: Knight Riders celebrate Kolkata homecoming with win over CSK

Kolkata Kolkata Knight Riders celebrated their homecoming in style beating Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets in their returnleg clash of the Indian Premier League atEden Gardens on Thursday nightA 112run partnership off just 64 deliveries for the unbroken fourth wicket between Robin Uthappa and Andre Russell saw Kolkata Knight Riders avenge Tuesdays defeat to Chennai Super KingsAlso ReadIPL 8 Win over CSK tested our character says Gautam GambhirChasing 166 on a slow turner the Knights made heavy weather of it loosing the plot in the middle and then getting to the target with a ball to spareUthappas unbeaten 80 came in 58 deliveries with seven fours and a six while Russell remained not out with a 32ball 55 that had five fours and four sixesThe defending champions climbed back to the third rung on the league ladderKKRsRobin Uthappa en route his matchwinning80 off 58 balls against CSK at Eden Gardens on Thursday PicPTIAs it did a couple of days before in Chennai the chase began on a bright note as Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir stitched together a 33run partnership at a decent trotSkipper Gambhir trying to hit Mohit Sharma out of the ground provided Super Kings the window of opportunity they were looking for Manish Pandey and Suryakumar Yadav KKRs bright young hopes continued to disappoint lasting a total of 13 deliveries between them and scoring five runsDhonis men applied the squeeze and the asking rate climbed It all seemed to be going the way it did on Tuesday when KKR failed to chase down a target of 134 in Chennai but Uthappa and Russell brought the chase back on trackUthappa carved 15 runs off Ashish Nehras final over hitting him for a six over longon and cutley cutting him for a couple of fours Andre Russell was soon into the act and the next two overs bowled by Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo fetched another 15 each The equation had been brought down to 19 off 18While Super Kings missed Ravichandran Ashwin who was injured in their previous match his replacement leftarm spinner Pawan Negi actually had a decent allround performanceEarlier a stunning fourwicket haul byveteran Brad Hogg enabled Kolkata Knight Riders restrict amarauding Chennai Super Kings to 165 for nineThe match began on dramatic note Ryan ten Doeschate diving left at gully to pluck out Dwayne Smith off the first ball but Brendon McCullum gave Pat Cummins the charge for a couple of sixes to ensure that the over produced 19 runsOnedrop Suresh Raina left soon enough but with McCullum maintaing that murderous mood he cut Cummuns for another six in the Aussie pacers next over and Faf du Plessis repeatedly finding the rope the Knights were under pressure This changed when they gave it a spinChinaman Brad Hogg picked up both McCullum and du Plessis in his first over having the first ball hurry on to trap the Kiwi in front for a 12ball 28 and then fooling the South African with a wrong un to have him stumped When Dhoni left the next over done in by a Piyush Chawla wrong un that kept a trifle low the Super Kings were 72 for 5 and had been pegged backInputs from Agencies