Chennai Super Kings (CSK) beat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by five wickets with a ball to spare at around midnight yesterday.  The huge crowd, die-hard supporters of home-team CSK, erupted in ecstasy and joy as all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja smote Vinay Kumar over the mid-wicket roof when CSK needed four of the last two balls.

Dwayne Bravo, architect of CSK’s inaugural win against Mumbai Indians, had played his hand in a cameo of 11 including an all-important six in the first ball of the 20th over.  It was, however, England’s 26-year old Sam Billings who was CSK’s ‘Man Friday’ on Tuesday as he hit 56 off  just 23 balls with  two 4’s and five towering sixes.  He got out while trying a sixth six with CSK needing 19 off the last 8 balls.

Earlier, West Indian Andre Russel treated the fans to some unbelievable lusty hitting.  The tall and powerfully built Russel, hit an almost match-winning 88 of just 36 balls including a four an 11 booming sixes.  Russel took special liking to his West Indian teammate Bravo, hitting him at will and for a hat-trick of sixes on one occasion.  Russel’s mind-boggling hitting helped KKR plunder 113 runs in the last 10 overs including 37 runs in the last 14 balls.  Russel ended KKR’s innings with a trade-mark six, taking them over the 200-run mark.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man: Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu provided just the right kind of start the CSK would have visualized, raking up 75 runs in just six overs before Watson (who hit 3 fours and 3 sixes) holed out.  Raina and Dhoni couldn’t get going after a set Rayudu threw his wicket away and the run rate kept creeping up all the time.

Sam Billings, who joined the team only two days back as a replacement of injured Kedar Jadhav, is known for his big hitting as he once hit 135 off just 58 balls in a county match for Kent in 2014.  Mixing aggression with authentic cricketing shots, he joined Dhoni and started hitting in a carefree manner right from the first ball, providing relief to Dhoni who struggled to find his touch though he hit a four and a six.  

CSK, which has an excellent record of chasing huge total, managed to keep its record intact with its five-wicket win over KKR and it now leads the points tally with two wins in even number of matches!