By Sirshendu Panth, IANS,
Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders gave a pathetic batting display to crash to a 55-run defeat against Chennai Super Kings who won their first game in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here Tuesday.
Facing an asking rate of 8.25, the KKR innings never got going after Brad Hodge (0) departed off the second delivery, as their batsmen fell prey to soft dismissals to see the innings fold for 109 in 19.1 overs before a capacity crowd at the Eden Gardens.
After winning their first two games, the Shah Rukh Khan-owned KKR crashed to their first defeat in the cash-rich league.
Earlier, the Chennai Super Kings rode on a cracker of an innings from skipper Dhoni (66 not out of 33 balls) and his 109-run unfinished fourth wicket stand with S. Badrinath (43 not out of 33 balls) to post an eight-plus asking rate. With Dhoni leading the charge, the duo picked up 83 runs in the last six overs to make the difference between the two teams.
Except Wriddhiman Saha (22; 5×4) none of the top order Knight Riders batsmen looked capable of throwing a challenge to the rivals, who bowled a disciplined stuff. Five of the Super Kings bowlers got wickets, with Justin Kemp (3/12) and Laxmipathy Balaji (2/9) doing the maximum damage.
Knight Riders skipper Sourav Ganguly’s (11) poor batting performance continued as he tried to hit Kemp over the ground and only managed to drag the ball to deep mid wicket. With only 55 on the board, the hosts had then lost half of their wickets.
The writing was clear on the wall, but Murli Kartik and Ishant Sharma only delayed the inevitable with a 25-run stand for the last wicket before the former was run out.
In the Super Kings innings, coming together at 55/3 with almost half of the overs exhausted, and Methew Hayden (1), Murali Vijay (33 of 26 balls) and Suresh Raina (18) gone, Dhoni and Badrinath took a little time to gauge the nature of the track – where the ball was not coming on to the bat – before going all guns blazing.
Dhoni began the charge by hooking Sri Lankan pacer Angelo Mathews over long on to end the 15th over, before Ishant Sharma went for a dozen in the next.
The Indian skipper carried out a fierce assault on Laxmi Ratan Shukla to plunder two boundaries and a six and then destroyed Shane Bond’s till then impressive analysis with an edged four, a pulled six and a cover driven boundary in the later half of the penultimate over. With the first four, Dhoni reached his 50 off 28 deliveries.
Badrinath kept the momentum going in the last over, to lift Sharma over the square leg boundary, before Dhoni executed another spectacular pull shot for a boundary as 16 came off the over.