IPL 2019: Suresh Raina, Imran Tahir Star As CSK Beat KKR To Continue Winning Momentum

Suresh Raina scored a half-century and shared a match-winning stand with Ravindra Jadeja, who contributed with a fearless 17-ball 31 as Chennai Super Kings outclassed Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday. Earlier, Imran Tahir claimed his IPL-best figures of 4/27 to help CSK restrict KKR to a 161 for eight in their allotted 20 overs. The visitors chased down the target with two balls to spare, with Suresh Raina unbeaten on 58 and Ravindra Jadeja not out on 31.

Needing 24 runs off the last two overs, Jadeja smashed Harry Gurney for three successive fours to make it just a formality in the last over. This was the defending champions' fourth win on the trot as they consolidated their position atop the table with 14 points and one more win will virtually seal their spot in play-offs whose cut-off over the years has been 16 points.

This was also their first win at the Eden Gardens since 2013 as they did a double on KKR who suffered a hat-trick of defeats for the first time since 2014 and set to slip out of their second place in the table.

Incidentally, 161 is their lowest score at the Eden this season. KKR next face Royal Challengers Bangalore here on April 19.

Sunil Narine was the pick of KKR bowling with figures 2/19 that included a wicket-maiden when he cleaned up Faf du Plessis (24) to end the powerplay.

But Raina held on at the other end with significant partnerships including a 40-run stand with skipper MS Dhoni.

It all seemed a walk in the park for CSK when Narine gave the biggest breakthrough dismissing Dhoni for 16 with team's score of 121/5, needing 41 runs from 26 balls. But Raina held his nerves while Jadeja gave the finishing touches.

On an Eden Gardens track where spinners had struggled so far, Tahir spun the match in favour of Chennai with his twin double blows in the 11th and 15th overs en route his career-best IPL figures that took him past Kagiso Rabada in the leading wicket-takers' tally.

Tahir removed an ominous-looking Chris Lynn (82 off 51 balls; 7x4, 6x6) and in a space of four balls removed the dangerous Andre Russell (10) for the first time under a score of 40 this season to put brakes on their scoring.

Tahir's bowling had such devastating effect that KKR managed just 28 runs from last five overs and went on to lose three more wickets to end up with a below-par total.

But it was a different script for KKR early on with a fit-again Lynn giving them a flying start en route to his second fifty this season that came off just 36 balls.

Having missed his team's last match because of flu, Lynn went ballistic against Deepak Chahar who bled 22 runs from his first two overs with the Aussie smashing the seamer for 4-6-4 in the third over.

Such was Lynn's dominance that the otherwise explosive Sunil Narine looked like a spectator at the other end with the Aussie having a share of 31 off 33 runs in the first four overs.

A 200-plus total looked imminent with Lynn looking dangerous and Russell starting to explode with a boundary and a six off Tahir.

But Tahir, aided by some brilliant catching from Faf du Plessis and the substitute Dhruv Shorey, made inroads removing Nitish Rana (21) and Robin Uthappa (0) in space of two balls.

(With PTI inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

Chennai Super Kings Sunrisers Hyderabad Ravindra Jadeja Suresh Raina IPL 2019 Cricket Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings, Match 29