KKR thump CSK in the IPL 2022 opener match in Wankhede Stadium: Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday defeated Ravindra Jadeja-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the tournament opener held at the Wankhede Stadium. KKR convincingly got an upper hand against CSK and won the match by six wickets to open their account in the Tata IPL 2022.
Earlier, KKR won the toss and opted to field first. Chennai couldn’t get off to a fine start as both the openers were dismissed cheaply by speedster Umesh Yadav.
Hero of the IPL 2021, Ruturaj Gaikwad registered a duck while Devon Conway threw his wickets in 3 runs post a few dot balls.
Robin Uthappa looked in sublime touch, however, the right-handed batter was stumped as he jumped down the track against mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy. Uthappa played a short knock of 28 runs from 21 deliveries with the help of two fours and as many sixes.
Owing to sensational bowling performance, CSK’s middle order was brought to the crease in the early part of the innings. Ambati Rayudu and skipper Ravindra Jadeja were in the middle in the ninth over.
Skipper Ravindra Jadeja had a horrible night with the willow in hand as he couldn’t match his dot ball percentage. The dashing superstar was suppressed by the captaincy charge and could only score underwhelming 26 runs from 28 balls. His unbeaten innings included just one six, which came off in the last delivery of CSK innings.
Meanwhile, Ambati Rayudu and Shivam Dube were also sent back by the KKR. While the former was the victim of a mix-up and lost his wicket run-out, the latter was caught at the mid-wicket.
Along with Ravindra Jadeja, former skipper MS Dhoni was in the middle to control the innings. Dhoni, though, didn’t look at his best during the initial phase, he flipped the table in the last two overs. The celebrated finisher did exactly what was expected from him and saved CSK from extreme embarrassment in the season opener against KKR.
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MS Dhoni scored a vital 50 runs unbeaten knock in 38 balls which came with the help of 7 fours and a six.
Owing to the valiant efforts of Dhoni, CSK could amass a total of 131 runs in 20 overs in the loss of five wickets.
In pursuit of a modest total, KKR got off to a decent start as the opener scored over 40 runs before the first wicket. Ajinkya Rahane scored 44 runs off 34 balls while Venkatesh Iyer could contribute with 16 runs.
Going forward to complete the target, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer and Sam Billings all played their part to steal victory convincingly. The three batters scored 21, 20* and 25 runs respectively.
KKR chased down the total in 18.3 overs and bagged two points in its first encounter of the Tata IPL 2022.
Pacer Umesh Yadav was awarded the Player of the Match award for his sensational spell of bowling. Yadav scalped two wickets in four overs by giving away 20 runs.
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