IPL 2021 - CSK vs KKR - Jadeja's 8-ball 22 does it for CSK in thriller, Yellow Army back to top

Chennai Super Kings 172/8 (Du Plessis 43, Gaikwad 40, Jadeja 22, Narine 3/41) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 171/6 (Tripathi 45, Rana 37, Thakur 2/20) by two wickets.

Ravindra Jadeja's 22 off 8 balls and 1/21 with the ball, proved vital. (BCCI/IPL)

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja helped his team back to the top of the table with a mighty assault against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) pacer Prasidh Krishna in the 19th over of the second innings where the all-rounder struck two sixes and two fours and virtually sealed the match for CSK notwithstanding the last over drama that was to follow.

Jadeja hammers 22 off the 19th over

CSK needed 26 runs from the last two overs with four wickets in hand and Jadeja had just arrived on the crease in the previous over after the fall of CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who had fallen to a googly from architect-turned-cricketer Varun Chakravarthy.

It was looking as if CSK might not make it but with Sir Ravindra Jadeja around, hope is something the Yellow Army has in plenty. Krishna came in to bowl the penultimate over and Jadeja was on strike. What followed was a single off the first ball and a single off the next too as Sam Curran handed back the strike to Sir Jadeja.

Now the equation was 24 off 10 and Sir Jadeja knew the onus was on him. Krishna dropped it short the third delivery and Jadeja pulled it to long leg to dispatch the white ball out of the boundary. The fourth delivery was struck mightily over long leg by Jadeja as he hit it way back the boundary rope, reminiscent of old times when powerful hitters didn’t used to hit sixes but twelves. The equation had come down to 12 off 8 deliveries in just two deliveries. Jadeja hit the next two deliveries which full outside the off-stump in the backward point region for two fours.

Narine has CSK on tenterhooks, almost win it for KKR

CSK now needed just four runs from one over. Surely CSK had it in its pockets but a brilliant move by KKR captain Eoin Morgan saw the off-spinner Sunil Narine bowl the last over. Narine had been expensive in this match leaking away 37 runs off the three overs he had bowled taking just a solitary wicket. The West Indian off-spinner got Sam Curran first ball caught by substitute fielder Kamalesh Nagarkoti at long off. CSK still needed only four runs and every day it cannot be defended. They were still on top.

Thakur arrived on the crease and failed to connect his first ball. He nudged the third delivery of the over fine and almost got a boundary to win the match but Chakravarthy fielded it well and held the batters to three runs. Ravindra Jadeja was back on strike. One mighty heave or a harmless single would have done it but Narine had other ideas as he kept the length full and struck Jadeja on the pads for a dot delivery. The next ball was a classical straighter one from the off-spinner which struck Jadeja on the pads who tried to sweep it but missed it to be given out leg before which was confirmed after the review.

The game was afoot and CSK now needed one to win it or else the match would have gone into the super over. Deepak Chahar came in unaffected by the drama though and struck the last delivery to mid-wicket and sealed the deal for CSK to take them to the top of the table.

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KKR made 171/6 batting first

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the toss and elected to bat first in the 38th match of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

The match started with a great over bowled by Deepak Chahar which consisted of almost everything - runs, DRS and a brilliant runout. KKR scored 171 runs in 20 overs with the loss of six wickets.

For Kolkata, runs were scored by Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana with the former scoring 45 runs which included four fours & a six and the latter picking 37 runs which included three fours and a six respectively.

Dinesh Kartik and Andre Russell also scored quickfire runs in the end overs to take their team to an excellent score of 171/6 in 20 overs on the board for their bowlers to defend. Kartik and Russell scored 26 runs with three fours and a six and 20 runs with two fours and a six in 11 and 15 balls, respectively.

For Chennai, the successful bowlers were Josh Hazelwood and Shardul Thakur with 2 wickets each. Ravindra Jadeja also took a wicket in his 4-over spell and conceded just 21 runs.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis in their elements again in the chase

While chasing the target of 172 runs in 20 overs, the Chennai openers gave another brilliant start to their team. Both of them built up a partnership of 74 runs in just 8.2 overs. Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 40 runs from just 28 balls which included two fours and three sixes while on the other hand, Du Plessis scored 43 runs from just 30 balls.

But the highlight of the CSK’s batting was the performance of Ravindra Jadeja in the 19th over against Prasidh Krishna when he smashed 22 runs and notwithstanding the brilliant last over for T20 specialist Sunil Narine CSK pocketed the match by a margin of two wickets.

Jadeja was rightly adjudged player-of-the-match for his 22 (8) and 1/21.

Although Knight Riders bowled with good line and length and stuck to their plan but the day belonged to the Chennai batters. The most successful bowler for Kolkata was Sunil Narine who took three wickets in his spell of four overs and conceded 41 runs.

The spells of other bowlers were - Prasidh Krishna with 4-0-41-1, Lockie Ferguson with 4-0-33-1, Varun Chakravarthy with 4-0-22-1, Andre Russell with 3-0-28-1 and Venkatesh Iyer with 1-0-6-0.

IPL Points Table

Chennai numero uno again in the points table

With this win Chennai Super Kings moved to top of the table with 16 points in 10 matches with a net run rate of +1.069 and have almost booked a place in the playoffs of the Indian Premier League 2021. On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders are in fourth spot with four wins from 10 matches and have a net run rate of +0.332.

Stat Alert

CSK vs KKR last two meetings in United Arab Emirates:

- Jadeja - 31* (11) in Dubai, 2020 (target : 173)

- Jadeja – 22 (8) in Abu Dhabi, 2021 (target : 172)

- Eoin Morgan played his 50th match for KKR in the IPL on Sunday.

Overseas players to play 50 IPL matches for KKR:

Jacques Kallis

Sunil Narine

Andre Russell

Eoin Morgan

Twitter Reactions as CSK beat KKR and move to Top

Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by two wickets in 38th game of IPL 2021. CSK move to top of the table with this win. Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged man of the match for his all round performance. Cricket fans and expert louds his effort and congratulated CSK on keeping the momentum going in UAE leg.

Here are some of the finest twitter reactions from CSKvsKKR match:

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