Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh Star as KKR Beat CSK to Keep Playoffs Hopes Alive

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 6 wickets in match number 61 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday.

Deepak Chahar started the CSK defence impressively as he dismissed the KKR top trio Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Jason Roy and Venkatesh Iyer, reducing the visitors to just 33-3.

The pair of Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh stuck around to swat the spinner around the park with some typical cricketing shots. Rinku reached his fifty in just 39 balls as Nitish also got to his half-century in 38 balls.

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Earlier, Shivam Dube continued his good six-hitting form to take CSK to 144/6 against KKR. Dube’s unbeaten 48 off 34 balls, which included one four and three sixes, helped Chennai get some valuable runs on a challenging pitch. For Kolkata, Sunil Narine and local boy Varun Chakaravarthy bowled well to take two wickets each to keep Chennai to their lowest total of IPL 2023.

Electing to bat first, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway looked at ease in driving, cutting, and flicking off fast bowlers Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana to pick three fours in the first three overs.

After Gaikwad swept Chakaravarthy for four, the leg-spinner bounced back when he found a turn on leg-break which the right-handed batter tried to slog and top-edge flew to short third man.

After Conway brought out a cover drive off Chakaravarthy for four, Ajinkya Rahane used Rana’s pace to late-dab past the third man for four and followed it up with an effortless loft over mid-on for six as Chennai signed off from Power-play with 52/1.

Conway got to change an lbw decision off Chakaravarthy when on 25 in the eighth over as replays showed the ball bouncing above stumps, but Rahane wasn’t lucky as he holed out to long-on off a leg-break in the same over.

Chennai plunged into trouble when Conway got a top edge on the pull off Shardul Thakur and was caught by deep square-leg in the tenth over. In the next over, an off-break from Sunil Narine went past Ambati Rayudu’s sweep and crashed into the stumps, while his carrom ball beat Moeen Ali’s inside edge to leave the stumps in a mess.

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Dube ended a 41-ball no-boundary spree by launching an overpitched delivery from Suyash Sharma over extra cover for six. But Narine, Suyash and Chakaravarthy controlled the run flow by giving only 11 runs collectively from overs 13, 14 and 15.

Dube began to attack by pulling Thakur for four, before he and Ravindra Jadeja smashed a six each over the leg-side on short balls from Suyash on either side of a no-ball, to amass 16 runs from the 17th over.

Dube then took on Chakaravarthy by smoking a six over mid-wicket, before taking a brace twice. But Thakur pulled things back admirably by conceding only five runs, including a wide, in the 19th over.

After Jadeja ramped a bouncer straight to short third man off Arora in the final over, Kolkata conceded only four runs on the last two balls, including a wide and no-ball, as Chennai picked only 14 runs off the last two overs.

(With inputs from Agencies)