To pen down a script that 3 times Champions of the IPL, Chennai Super Kings playing in front of their home based supporters with classy players like M.S.DHONI, RAVINDRA JADEJA and RAVICHANDRAN ASHWIN alongside oversees players in the class of Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Sam Curren, Noor Ahmed with death overs specialist Matheesha Pathirana also in the fold, getting thumped by 8 wickets by an opposition with 59 balls to spare adding salt to the wound by penning down facts that this is their 5th loss on the trot this season to me as a three decade old journalist, is an out of the box script.
In yesterday’s game in their own backyard, the M.S.Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings in the absence of skipper Ruthrat Gaikward ended up as victims of a triple spin attack by their competitive opponents Kolkota Knight Riders as Varun Chackravarthy, Moeen Ali and Sunil Narine spun 12 overs with one maiden conceeding 56 runs scalping 6 wickets between them in the process by restricting CSK to an unimaginable score runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs.
Many batters in this format go with a mindset of see ball hit ball sacrificing their orthodox stroke play to improvised new creation of strokes not found in coaching manuals . At the 103 for 9 wickets bzatting first that too after zzz winning the toss one can come to a conclusion a one sided game in favour of the chasing side is on the cards.
Vijay Shanker made 29, impact player Sivem Dube 31, whilst the rest of the Chennai Super Kings batting cordon simply were off colour in their batting display.
Harshit Rana took 2 for 16 with seam , whist Varun Chackravarthy 2 for 22 , Sunil Narine 3 for 13, and Moeen Ali 1 for 20 bowling spin were unplayable at Chepok stadium yesterday on good batting conditions.
The inevitable result in favour of Kolkota Knight Riders was done and dusted with 59 balls to spare in 10.1 overs as Man of the match Sunil Narine made 44, Quinton de Kock 23, Ajankya Rahane the captain remained unbeaten on 20.
We all had an early night whilst the team meeting at the Chennai Super Kings camp headed by Stephen Fleming also lasted less than half an hour with grumpy faces in unison telling themselves “What’s done cannot be undone.”
With this loss, the yellow boys qualifying for the playoffs is a near impossibility. They now languish in 9th position whilst Kolkota Knight Riders up the ladder to number 3.
The double header is scheduled for today between Sunrisers Hydrabad and Punjab Kings. The late night show is at 7.30 pm IST , and the matinee show between Lucknow Super Giants and Gujrat Titans is scheduled at 3.30 pm , and will be competitive.