IPL 2019: Chennai Super Kings thrash Kolkata Knight Riders

Chennai - Chennai Super Kings (10 points) moved up to the top spot in the points table.

Inspired by their bowler's wicket-taking brilliance, Chennai Super Kings put Kolkata Knight Riders to the sword with an emphatic seven-wicket win in their Indian Premier League encounter in  on Tuesday.
Deepak Chahar (3/20), Harbhajan Singh (2/15) and Imran Tahir (2/21) restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 108/9 in 20 overs before their batsmen, backed by Faf du Plessis's fine unbeaten 43 (45 balls, three fours), helped the team reach home in 17.2 overs.
"Definitely not enough runs. Tricky games, games like these. You never know what's a good score, with the dew and stuff. You always end up thinking you should have got more," said Dinesh Karthik, Knight Riders captain, after a losing a match which was attended by team owner and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
Chennai Super Kings (10 points) moved up to the top spot in the points table with their fifth win in six matches, while the Knight Riders slipped to the second spot.
Chahar shaved off the KKR top order early and was well supported by veteran Harbhajan who was very economical and Tahir as Chennai never allowed the visitors to get an upper hand after they were asked to bat first by MS Dhoni.
The defending champions, led admirably by Dhoni, even kept Andre Russell quiet as the big-hitting West Indian scored 50 off 44 ball not out, his innings laced with five fours and three sixes.
KKR never really got going and it looked like they would not cross the 100-run mark before Russell - struggling with niggles - hit Scott Kuggeleijn for one six and two fours as the purple brigade managed to get 15 runs off the last over.
Russell was dropped when he was batting on 8 by Harbhajan which was a difficult chance.
KKR were reduced to 24/4 inside the first five overs, largely due to Chahar who bowled a superb first spell of 3-0-14-3.
He first trapped Chris Lynn (0) in front and then dismissed Nitish Rana (0) who hit a rising delivery straight to Ambati Rayudu at midwicket.
In between those two wickets, Harbhajan continued his rich vein of form with the ball by removing Sunil Narine (6) with a tossed up delivery that the West Indian top-edged to Chahar who ran backwards from point to complete an excellent catch.
The Rajasthan pacer then got the back of Robin Uthappa (11) who was guilty of trying to play one shot too many.
Karthik (19) and Shubman Gill (9) then tried to stop the rot but just when the pair looked to have settled in, Karthik hit straight to midwicket where Harbhajan took a sharp catch off Tahir.
Tahir removed Gill too with a googly that slipped through between inside edge and leg for Dhoni to take the bails off behind the stumps.
Russell and Piyush Chawla (8) joined hands for a 29-run stand for the seventh wicket but once Harbhajan sent the latter back with a delivery that spun sharply away from the batsman for Dhoni to effect an easy stumping, it was all downhill for the visitors.
Kuldeep Yadav and Prasidh Krishna did not trouble the scorers with Harry Gurney (1 not out) staying till the end with Russell.

CSK bowlers shine Kolkata Knight Riders C Lynn lbw b Chahar 0 S Narine c Chahar b Harbhajan 6 R Uthappa c Jadhav b Chahar 11 N Rana c Rayudu b Chahar 0 K Karthik c Harbhajan b Tahir 19 Shubman Gill st Dhoni b Tahir 9 A Russell not out 50 P Chawla st Dhoni b Harbhajan 8 Kuldeep Yadav run out 0 M Prasidh c Harbhajan b Jadeja 0 H Gurney not out 1 Extras: (lb 1, w 3) 4 Total: (nine wkts, 20 overs) 108 Fall: 1-6, 2-8, 3-9, 4-24, 5-44, 6-47, 7-76, 8-76, 9-79 Bowling: Chahar 4-0-20-3; Harbhajan 4-0-15-2; Jadeja 4-0-17-1; Kuggeleijn 4-0-34-0; Tahir 4-0-21-2   Chennai Super Kings S Watson c Chawla b Narine 17 F du Plessis not out 43 S Raina c Chawla b Narine 14 A Rayudu c Rana b Chawla 21 K Jadhav not out 8 Extras (nb2, w6) 8 Total (for three wickets, 17.2 overs) 111 Fall: 1-18, 2-35, 3-81 Bowling: P Chawla 4-0-28-1; Prasidh Krishna 4-0-23-0; S Narine 3.2-0-24-2; Kuldeep Yadav 4-0-16-0; H Gurney 2-0-20-0 Toss: Chennai Super Kings

• IPL 2019