Chennai Super Kings ‘choked’ in the second half of their innings to ultimately fall to a 10-run defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders.
MS Dhoni and his men were cruising in their run-chase of 168, with opener Shane Watson making it two half-centuries in a row. At 99-1 after the completion of 12 overs, CSK seemed to have the game in the bag.
However, a dramatic collapse induced by KKR’s spin contingent of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy changed the game on its head. A flurry of quick wickets and some inexplicable batting by Kedar Jadhav meant that Chennai needed 26 runs to win off the last over.
That proved to be a bridge to far for CSK, despite some late blows from the bat of Ravindra Jadeja. Earlier, a superb 81 from opener Varun Tripathi had set the tone for KKR’s innings. In a batting showing that mirrored that of Chennai, Kolkata failed to capitalise on Tripathi’s knock and were bowled out for 167 at the completion of their 20 overs.
Sam Curran’s excellent tournament continued, with the Englishman picking up two more wickets. There were also a couple of wickets for seamer Shardul Thakur.
