Kolkata: Maheesh Theekshana and Tushar Deshpande took two wickets each Chennai Super Kings restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 186/8 in defence of a mammoth 235 and win by 49 runs at Eden Gardens to move to the top of the points table.
After Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube struck half-centuries and carted Kolkata’s bowlers all over the park in posting the highest Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 total at this venue, where they were greeted by a sea of yellow in the stands, Jason Roy and Rinku Singh struck valiant half-centuries for KKR.
But they were not enough to chase down a massive total as Kolkata slumped to their fourth straight defeat in the competition. With Roy not coming out to bat after seemingly injuring his ankle while trying to save a boundary, Sunil Narine was sent to open. But Akash Singh took him out on the fourth ball by uprooting his off-stump. In the next over, N. Jagadeesan sliced off Deshpande and Ravindra Jadeja dived low to take a stunning catch at third man.
Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer hit two sixes and five fours in their 45-run standoff 35 balls before Moeen Ali struck on his first ball by trapping the latter plumb lbw. Roy came out to bat at five and began with a bang with a hat-trick of sixes through sweeping twice and reverse-sweeping once.
Rana went for a slog-sweep off Ravindra Jadeja but was caught at deep mid-wicket. Chennai attempted to run out Roy and Rinku from both ends, but the batters reached in time. Roy powerfully swept and sliced Jadeja for six and four respectively, while Rinku slammed another six as 19 runs came off the 11th over.
Roy then pulled and swung Maheesh Theekshana for four and six respectively, before Rinku heaved Jadeja over deep mid-wicket for six. Roy reached his fifty in 19 balls with a slice past third man for four. But after hitting Theekshana for back-to-back fours in the 15th over, he was castled by a beautiful carrom ball which had some dip from the off-spinner.
Despite Andre Russell and Umesh Yadav being caught in the deep while David Wiese was trapped lbw, Rinku continued to smash boundaries and get his fifty in 30 balls while managing to keep the losing margin for Kolkata below 50 runs.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 235/4 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 71 not out, Devon Conway 56, Shivam Dube 50; Kulwant Khejroliya 2-44, Suyash Sharma 1-29) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 186/8 in 20 overs (Jason Roy 61, Rinku Singh 53 not out; Maheesh Theekshana 2-32, Tushar Deshpande 2-43) by 49 runs
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