Chennai, April 11 (IANS) Sunil Narine put out a superb all-round show – picking 3-13 in his four overs and then smashing an entertaining 44, as a ruthless Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) thoroughly outplayed Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by eight wickets in a one-sided clash of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.
On a black-soil pitch which offered help to spinners from the word go, Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy and Moeen Ali, brought to counter left-handed batters, picked six wickets collectively as CSK’s batting never got going and ended up at a below-par 103/9, their lowest IPL total at Chepauk.
In reply, Narine’s pyrotechnics, as well as CSK bowlers pitching their deliveries too full meant KKR chased down the paltry total with 59 balls to spare. It also meant that CSK suffered their biggest margin of defeat in the IPL in terms of balls remaining, while losing five consecutive games for the first time in their history of being in the competition.
KKR were off to a flying start as Narine and Quinton de Kock thumped Khaleel Ahmed and Anshul Kamboj for a six each. Interestingly, CSK just hit one six in their entire innings, while KKR hit two maximums in just seven balls of their chase.
There was no stopping de Kock as he whipped and pulled Khaleel for two sixes. Ravichandran Ashwin’s introduction didn’t change anything for CSK as Narine slammed a four in the gap between mid-off and extra cover, before pulling his carrom ball over deep square leg for six.
But in a bid to smack Kamboj over leg-side, de Kock missed the delivery and saw the top of his off-stump being rattled, as he fell for 23. Ajinkya Rahane was elegant in his drive down the ground off Kamboj and flicking Khaleel over square-leg for six with panache, even as Narine continued his merry run-making by heaving Khaleel for four and six respectively.
There was no respite for Ashwin as Narine pulled and lofted him for two sixes. Though Narine was castled by Noor Ahmad for 44, Rahane and Rinku Singh completed the chase quickly to give the reigning champions a big win and a huge NRR boost.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 103/9 in 20 overs (Shivam Dube 31 not out, Vijay Shankar 29; Sunil Narine 3-13, Harshit Rana 2-16) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 107/2 in 10.1 overs (Sunil Narine 44, Quinton de Kock 23; Noor Ahamd 1-8, Anshul Kamboj 1-19) by eight wickets
–IANS
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