Abu Dhabi: Ravindra Jadeja (22, 8b, 2×4, 2×6) came good when it mattered the most and helped Chennai Super Kings (CSK) achieve a thrilling two-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL-2021 encounter here Sunday.
Jadeja launched into pacer Prasidh Krishna, who bowled the 19th over, where the pacer lost his length completely under the Saurashtra all-rounder’s onslaught with CSK reaching the target of 172 in exactly 20 overs. Jadeja hit all his boundaries and over-boundaries in the 19th over as Krishna went for 22 runs in the penultimate over to leave CSK with four runs to get in the final over.
But there was more drama in store as Sam Curran and Jadeja were snuffed out by Sunil Narine (3/41) before Deepak Chahar ended the match with a single.
In pursuit of a challenging 172, CSK were down and out at 142/6 before Jadeja took the onus on himself.
KKR had posted 171/6, as they rode on late flourish by former skipper Dinesh Karthik (26, 11b, 3×4, 1×6) and Nitish Rana (37, 27b, 3×4, 1×6). Their 40-run sixth wicket stand off just 18 balls propelled KKR past the 170-run mark. The top scorer for the Knights was Rahul Tripathi (45, 33b, 4×4, 1×6).
Seamer Shardul Thakur (2/20) and Jadeja (1/21) performed impressively to keep KKR under leash till the 13th over when they were 93 for four. However, the last seven overs yielded 78 runs and KKR were able to put on a more than fighting score largely due to Sam Curran (0/56) leaking runs at the back end. Even Josh Hazlewood (2/40) got a bit of stick helping KKR’s cause.
CSK weren’t able to capitalise on the aggressive 74-run opening start given by Ruturaj Gaikwad (40, 28b, 2×4, 3×6) and South African Faf Du Plessis (43, 30b, 7×4). KKR pegged CSK by sending both the openers back in quick succession. CSK then suffered a middle-order collapse. Spinner Varun Chakravarthy had got KKR back into the game by dismissing MS Dhoni.
However, then came the Jadeja show and CSK were home while topping the table with 16 points.
Brief scores: KKR 171 for 6 (Rahul Tripathi 45, Nitish Rana 37 n o, Shardul Thakur 2/20) lost to CSK 172 for 8 (Faf du Plessis 43, Ruturaj Gaikwad 40, Sunil Narine 3/41) by 2 wickets.