EDEN GARDENS: On a Sunday afternoon, the stage was set at Eden Gardens where Kolkata welcomed Chennai on their home soil. Despite, Lynn’s 81 Chennai defeated Kolkata by 5 wickets.
After winning the toss Chennai skipper MSD won the toss and elected to bowl first. KKR made 3 changes in their squad. Lynn, Narine, and Gurney replaced Denly, Carlos, and Ferguson. On the other hand, Chennai played with the same squad.
The duo of Narine-Lynn came to the crease. Lynn was looking in fabulous touch as he announced his arrival by hitting 2 boundaries in the first over of the match. Till the fourth over Narine faced only 4 deliveries while Lynn faced 21 and scored 31 runs. In the fifth over, Narine lost his wicket and it was Santner who provided the breakthrough. From the beginning till the halfway stage it was Chris Lynn who looked comfortable around the CSK bowlers. Meanwhile, he completed his 8th IPL half-century with 7 fours and 2 sixes. Nitish Rana was also looking good but he lost his wicket in the 11th over of the game. In the same over Uthappa departed for a duck.
Lynn was looking dangerous as he hit 3 SIXES in the 14th over of the match. But after that, he was dismissed on 82 off 51 balls by Tahir in the very next over. Andre Russell who came to bat number 6. This time he scored only 10 runs(3balls) and got dismissed in the same over. Chennai was now on the top of the game. After Lynn dismissal, none of the Kolkata’s batsman looks comfortable on the pitch. In the last 6 overs, they only managed 40 runs and set a total of 162 runs for the visitors. Imran Tahir was the man of the hour with his figures of 4-0-27-4. Shradul Thakur also bowled economically and grabbed 2 wickets.
The visitors started off nicely as Du Plessis smashed 4 Boundaries in the 3rd over the inning. But Watson’s continued his poor form as he was departed for 6 runs. After a few overs, Du Plessis was knocked down by Sunil Narine. Rayudu and Raina tried to build a partnership but after Strategic Time-out finds a fielder at covers. Dangerous looking Kedhar Jadhav got dismissed by Piyush Chawla. He scored 20 runs off 12 balls with 3 fours and a six. With 79 runs needed in 8 overs, CSK must need the support of the duo Raina-Dhoni to win this match. Rains started to put pressure on the bowlers by hitting boundaries.
Dhoni was looking itchy against Narine and he found himself plumb in front of wicket in the 16th over. And in between that Raina scored his 36th IPL half-century Now all the responsibility was on the shoulder of Raina and Jadeja. With 24 needed in the final 2, CSK was looking for a big over. In the 19th over Jadeja smashed 3 boundaries to Harry Gurney and made the chase easier for CSK. And in the final over, they chased the target easily. For his tremendous spell, Imran Tahir was adjourned as the man of the match.