Chennai Super Kings 141 for 3 (Gaikwad 67, Arora 2-28) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 137 for 9 (Iyer 34, Jadeja 3-18, Deshpande 3-33, Mustafizur 2-22) by seven wickets
After two back-to-back defeats on the road, Chennai Super Kings returned to the comforts of home and to winning ways, consigning Kolkata Knight Riders to their first loss of IPL 2024.
With three to win, in walked MS Dhoni, causing bedlam in the Chepauk stands. But it was Gaikwad who fittingly finished off the chase by crashing Anukul Roy through covers.
Gaikwad’s welcome return to form
It hasn’t been the strongest of starts for Gaikwad in IPL 2024. Coming into the game, he had only managed 88 runs in four innings, averaging 22 in the tournament. But with a modest target in front of him, he bedded in for the long haul. After a watchful first over, he got going with a ramp off Vaibhav Arora and moved from 4 off 9 to 32 off 23 by the end of the powerplay.
The early impetus was provided by Rachin Ravindra who went after Mitchell Starc, but once he fell, Gaikwad made sure to keep the things moving forward. With Ajinkya Rahane struggling with a calf strain, he had additional responsibility and took up the role well.
Gaikwad took on the left-arm spin of Anukul Roy, backing away first ball of the fifth over and creaming him through covers. He repeated those shots twice over before smashing Vaibhav Arora for two back-to-back fours. CSK had raced to 52 for 1 at the end of the powerplay.
CSK make it 3/3 at home
Gaikwad got excellent support from Mitchell and Dube in helping CSK get over the line. Mitchell, promoted up the order to No. 3, hit his straps by thumping Sunil Narine for a six and four immediately after the powerplay. The duo did not always keep the boundaries flowing but they kept the scoreboard ticking. In the 36 balls between overs six to 12, they scored 44 runs – 17 singles, five doubles, two fours and one six – and that was all CSK needed as the asking run rate crept below the six an over mark.
Sunil Narine – the powerplay king
After losing the toss and a wicket off the first ball of the game, KKR were propped up by Sunil Narine, their powerplay wrecker-in-chief this season. He went after Tushar Deshpande in his second over. A four through square leg, one over mid-off and then a six over deep square – Narine was up and away. Not even a shoulder injury seemed to stop him.
The slowdown courtesy Ravindra Jadeja
The CSK spinners had not picked up a single wicket at Chepauk in the first two matches there in IPL 2024. And Jadeja seemed to take it personally. He picked up three wickets in his first eight balls of the match, putting a big dent in the KKR middle order.
He first sent back Raghuvanshi, who shaped up for a reverse sweep, missed and was caught right in front. Then he got rid of Narine for the fourth time in five T20 innings, the batter slicing a length ball straight to long-off. Venkatesh Iyer was Jadeja’s third victim holing out to deep midwicket with Mitchell taking a good catch diving forward. Normally Jadeja’s plan in these conditions is to be as accurate as possible. Here he knew he had to do one other thing as well. Not bowl full. Let the natural variation that this pitch was offering do its thing.
After scoring 56 in the first six overs, KKR only managed 43 in the next nine, losing four wickets in the process.
The quicks go slow
Once 15 overs were done, Gaikwad got the fast bowlers into play, and they relied more on the cutters. Deshpande had Rinku Singh chopping one back onto his stumps before Mustafizur Rahman took over. He might have been coming off a long run-up but got slower cutters in, which would have made any slow left-arm orthodox spinner proud.
Ashish Pant is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo