A resilient Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) fought till the very last ball but a gritty Chennai Super Kings (CSK) kept their nerves to win by two wickets in Match 38 of the Indian Premier League (2021). After enduring a good start by openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf Du Plessis, KKR bowlers struck at regular intervals to jolt CSK's run-chase in the middle overs. Moeen Ali gave the much-needed momentum with counter-attacking batting but it all came down to Ravindra Jadeja's 22 runs off the 19th over to get CSK back in the match. With 6 runs needed off the last four balls, it looked all but easy for CSK, but Sunil Narine struck twice to bring it down to one off one. Deepak Chahar kept his nerves to hand CSK the two points which took them back to the top of the IPL points table. Earlier, Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana ensured KKR set a daunting 172-run target versus CSK in Abu Dhabi. Despite losing their top-order inside the first 10 overs, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana scored freely to get KKR to 171/6 in their 20 overs. KKR went in unchanged from their last game while CSK brought in Sam Curran in place of Dwayne Bravo. (SCORECARD)
Chennai Super Kings
Kolkata Knight Riders