In yet another heart-break for fans, CSK lost tamely to KKR by a margin of 10 runs at Abu Dhabi in the on-going IPL-13 while chasing a modest 168 for a win.

'Hara-kiri' after a good start

CSK literally committed ‘hara-kiri’ after it led the chase dominantly at one stage with 99/1 off 12 overs. All CSK needed was a mere 68 runs from 8 overs at a very gettable average of 8.5 runs per over. Just when everybody thought that CSK would coast home easily, Rayudu played a rank-bad shot to a Nagarkoti deliver to hold out in the deep, followed swiftly by Watson, last match's hero, who hit a brisk 50. Narine castled Watson after he put on 69 runs with Rayudu for the second wicket.

Middle-over slump

All was not lost even at that stage: CSK was 101/3 in 13.1 overs and it needed just some clever batting to reach the target. An out-of-sorts Dhoni, who appears very reluctant nowadays to go down the track to lift the spinners, played out a few dot balls to Narine before falling to Varun Chakravarthy who uprooted Dhoni’s middle-stump. CSK still needed 39 runs from 21 balls which was not a big deal in T20 cricket where teams usually score in excess of 35 in the last three overs.

Kedar spoils

In came Kedar Jadhav (Bravo should have come out, experts say) to douse CSK’s chase by playing a few dot balls. Even in the last over when CSK needed 26 for an improbable victory, Kedar denied a single as if he was going to hit five sixes in the next five balls. What followed was another dot ball and a single; when Jadeja finally got strike, he hit a six and a couple of fours to take the score to 157. Narine and other bowlers stifled CSK’s chase in the last seven overs, helped largely by Kedar who deserves to be dropped from the team.

Tripathi dazzles

Earlier, DK won the toss and chose to bat first apparently with idea of putting up a bit total on the score board to apply pressure on CSK’s strong batting line-up. Learning from its past mistakes, KKR held back Sunil Narine and sent its last match hero Rahul Tripathi to open the innings along with Shubman Gill. Repaying his captain’s trust, Tripathi played a blinder of an innings even as wickets kept falling regularly around him. He hit a 51-ball 81 with eight 4’s and three 6’s.

No other batsman (except Cummins and Narine who scored 17 each) batted decently for KKR which was taken home later by its bowlers and CSK’s inept batting.

Score in brief:

KKR: 167/10 (20 overs)

CSK: 157/5 (20 overs)

Man of the Match: Rahul Tripathi

Picture Courtesy: IPLT20.COM