In the season opener of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium.
The new KKR skipper, Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl first. The bowling unit of KKR troubled the opponents as they managed to get two wickets and also didn’t let them score easily. The Knight Riders restricted CSK to a below-par score of 131.
The opening pair of the two-time IPL champions, Ajinkya Rahane (44) and Venkatesh Iyer (16) put 43 runs until the latter was caught behind the stumps in the seventh over. Rahane was looking good with his placement and timing, the veteran stitched a small partnership with Nitish Rana (21). The southpaw fell prey to Dwayne Bravo in the 10th over. After giving a steady start and building partnerships with batsmen at the other end, Rahane departed in the 12th over on Mitchell Santner’s bowling. Iyer (20*) and Sam Billings (25) were the two new batsmen at the crease. The two batsmen had a quick 36-run partnership. Billings was anchoring the innings while Iyer played the supporting role. The partnership concluded in the 18th over but it didn’t matter to the side as the job was almost done. Sheldon Jackson joined the KKR skipper at the crease. Iyer hit the winning runs with a boundary at mid-wicket and took his team home with six wickets to spare.
For CSK, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (50*) was the pick among the batsmen for his scintillating half-century. Robin Uthappa (28) tried to stabilize the innings after wickets fell in the initial overs of the innings.
Umesh Yadav was the star with the ball for KKR for his economic spell of 20 runs in his four overs along with two wickets. Andre Russell and Varun Chakravarthy also pocketed one wicket each.
On the other end for CSK, Bravo pocketed three wickets while Santner had one scalp.
KKR managed to grab two crucial points in the season opener and commenced their IPL 2022 journey on a higher note. Yadav was adjudged Man of the Match for his impressive bowling figures.
Scorecard:
CSK: 131/5, Overs 20, MS Dhoni 50*, Umesh Yadav 2/20
KKR: 133/4, Overs 18.3, Ajinkya Rahane (44), Dj Bravo 3/20