In a one sided affair the Kolkata Knight Riders completely butchered the Chennai Super Kings in their own homeground, restricting them to 103/9 and chasing it down in just 10.1 overs.
CSK seemed to be in low spirits throughout the game, as their batsmen batted very ineptly, showing no intent in their strokes and struggling against the entirety of Kolkata’s bowling. It seemed like Chennai’s batsmen had forgotten how to bat. Ravichandran Ashwin’s dismissal was a half hearted stroke showing no intent of clearing the boundary and even his earlier shots seemed amateurish and passive. It seemed like he was unprepared and even felt like an inexperienced batsman in his poor innings of 1 off 7.
Shivam Dube instead of keeping the strike with himself, gave it to Noor Ahmad in the 18th over, who got dismissed immediately on the next delivery. This was unfathomable from Dube as he was the last standing batsman who could get in some runs but chose to give the strike to a bowler, which almost cost CSK the next 24 runs which prevented KKR from wrapping things up in the powerplay itself, even though Dube later scored those crucial runs as a slight redemption despite KKR’s slaughter immediately afterwards.
Vijay Shankar failed to make the most out of his chances from KKR’s dropped catches as he too was dismissed for a meagre 29 off 21
Reckless play from the openers and complete failure from the middle order also played a huge role in Chennai’s batting collapse. Chennai went from 59/2 to 79/9, losing 7 wickets for just 20 runs which they took 7.4 overs to score, reminiscent of India’s collapse against Sri Lanka in the 1996 WC semi-final.
There is not much to say about Kolkata’s batting as their batsman came out all guns blazing, chasing down the meagre target of 104 in just 10.1 overs.
Overall, despondency and low spirits in CSK’s players manifested into a disgraceful batting collapse, with KKR chasing down the target without breaking a sweat, leading to a humiliating loss in their own homeground, in which certain records they had have been broken, such as this being their biggest loss while batting first on it, their winning streak against RCB since 2008 and DC since 2010 snapping etc.
KKR will look to continue with winning ways after this commanding victory over CSK which boosted their NRR significantly, uplifting them to the 3rd place on the points table. Meanwhile, CSK’s players need to pull themselves together and rise from their low spirits despite a few losses, as that will not help stop their losing streak.
