Gill, Karthik Star As KKR Overcome CSK's Challenge

Kolkata Knight Riders put on an all-round show to beat Chennai Super Kings by 6- wickets at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Thursday (May 3). This win lifted KKR to the 3rd spot in points table. KKR, after winning the all-important toss and put CSK to bat. CSK off to a flying start before Piyush Chawla dismissed Faf du Plessis (27 off 15 balls) on 48. At the other end, Shane Watson continued his good form before he pulled a rank long hop straight to deep-midwicket for 36. Raina and Rayudu followed Watson after sedate cameos, courtesy some excellent bowling from Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav in middle overs. But MS Dhoni's 25-balls 43 lifted CSK to 177 after 20 overs.

Chasing 178, Chris Lynn again got out cheaply. He made 12 off 6 with two maximum. But some lusty blows from Narine pushed KKR to 40 runs where they lost Uthappa on 6. KKR promoted Shubman Gill to no.4 and that proved to be a masterstroke as he finished on unbeaten 56 off 35 balls and his partnership of 36-balls 83* with skipper Dinesh Karthik (18-ball 45*) guided KKR home comfortably in the end.



Where did this match slip from CSK despite solid start

In between 10 and 15 overs, CSK were going great at the end of 10-over mark with 90 on board? But suddenly they found difficult to get runs and managed only 31 runs in next 5 overs. On the other hand, KKR scored 51 in this period and that proved to be costly for CSK in the end.

Spin The trio- Game Changers For KKR



Spinners have been KKR's biggest strength so far in this IPL. Their performance against CSK was a great example of their strength. Karthik opted to go with Chawla straightaway in second over. A beautiful googly stunned du Plessis, a short ball from Narine did it for Watson. The combined figures of the trio read 12-0-89-5. It was spinners who restricted CSK to 177.

Shubman Gill- Rising Star Of IPL 2018

Shubman Gill came with high reputation after his performance in Under-19 World Cup, where he was named Man Of The Tournament. However he didn't get a chance to play up the order in previous games for KKR but when he got, he grabbed this opportunity with both hands. He came out to bat when KKR lost 2 wickets on 40. He didn't take too much time to get going and hit 3 boundaries to Shane Watson. His half-whip, half-sweep against Harbhajan Singh, was shot of the innings. Gill showed immense maturity and potential in his maiden IPL fifty. His partnership with Karthik comfortably took KKR to win and helped his team to garner two crucial points.



Vintage Dhoni

Undoubtedly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is playing his best cricket in this IPL. It must be such a sight for cricket lovers to sew Dhoni turn the clock back and reminds us his vintage hitting days. Despite suffering from back pain, he continued played such innings an important stage. And against KKR, was another exhibition of clean striking. Shivam Mavi and Mitchell Johnson tried to test him with short balls but he sent them into stands. In his 25-balls 43 innings, he hit 2 sixes to Johnson, One to Mavi and One to Kuldeep. He was struck with 172. This was the mark that MS Dhoni is well and truly back.

Sunil Narine awarded Man Of The Match for his match-changing spell (4-0-20-2)

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