MS Dhoni’s fighting fifty couldn’t stop Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) from registering a comfortable six-wicket win over defending champions Chennai Super Kings(CSK) in the opening match of the IPL 2022.
Chasing a modest target, openers Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer gave KKR a solid start. Starting with some crisp drives and a stunning pulled six off Adam Milne, Rahane got off the blocks swiftly. He continued in a similar vein and took KKR to 43 after powerplay along with Venkatesh.
It was Dwayne Bravo, who gave CSK their first breakthrough by getting rid of Venkatesh (16) in the 7th over of the innings. Nitish Rana scored 21 runs and stitched a 33 run stand for the second wicket with Rahane before he got out to Bravo.
Rahane, after scoring 44 got out to Mitchell Santner. CSK managed to string together a few tight overs and brought the equation to around run-a-ball. However, Sam Billings played a supporting hand, remaining busy in a 22-ball 25 before becoming Bravo’s third victim of the match.
But Billings had done enough along with skipper Shreyas Iyer, who remained unbeaten on 20 and helped KKR chase down the target with nine balls to spare and six wickets in hand.
Earlier, KKR bowlers — Umesh Yadav (2/20) and Varun Chakravarthy (1/23) bowled well and restricted CSK to 131-5 despite a fighting fifty by former captain MS Dhoni (50 off 38).
After being put in to bat first, CSK were off to a bad start as KKR pacer Umesh removed Ruturaj Gaikwad for a duck in the very first over of the innings. Robin Uthappa then joined opener Devon Conway, who was struggling to find runs at the other hand; Umesh dismissed him for three to pluck his second wicket.
Uthappa looked in fine touch right from the beginning and hit a few lovely shots to get CSK going. Experienced Rayudu then joined Uthappa in the middle and they looked to rebuild the CSK innings.
Just when it looked like the stand between Uthappa and Rayudu was building, CSK lost another wicket. On a wide delivery bowled by Varun, Uthappa (28) went after blindly only to misread it and the wicket-keeper Sheldon Jackson stumped him in a flash.
CSK then lost the wicket of Rayudu (15) after a mix-up between him and skipper Jadeja. All-rounder Shivam Dube, who came to bat next, couldn’t do much and was dismissed by Andre Russell for three, leaving CSK tottering at 61-5 after 10.5 overs.
After losing back-to-back wickets, former skipper MS Dhoni and new captain Jadeja had the big responsibility on their shoulders to bail CSK out of trouble.
With only 84 runs on the board after the completion of 17 overs, Dhoni hit three boundaries in Russell’s over to give CSK’s innings some momentum.
Dhoni showed his class and hit some glorious shots in the last two overs to complete his fifty off 38 overs. In the end, Both Jadeja (26 off 28) and Dhoni remained not out and added 70 runs for the sixth wicket.
