The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) languishing near the bottom end of the table is a rare sight during an Indian Premier League season. Despite the team’s struggles early on in the tournament, there was a renewed sense of optimism among fans when M.S. Dhoni returned to captain the team following the unfortunate injury to Ruturaj Gaikwad.
The encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders at home was the first step of what supporters believed would be a ‘Thala’-led turnaround. ‘The OG Captain is back, ’ said one of the placards held high among the sea of yellow at Chepauk on Friday. Another one read ‘Captain Cool in = CSK win’.
But, what transpired was a merciless reality check for the five-time champion as the Knight Riders delivered a near-perfect bowling performance to restrict the host to 103 for nine – its lowest total at Chepauk – en route to a thumping eight-wicket win.
The contest, which started with deafening whistles when the 43-year-old skipper strode out for his traditional one-touch-football warm-up, ended in stunned silence as Rinku Singh slog swept Ravindra Jadeja to deep midwicket, off a free hit, to cap a majestic victory.
Between the two contrasting extremities was an exemplary bowling performance from KKR, led by its ace-spinner Sunil Narine, who picked up the Player-of-the-match award for his three-wicket haul and 44-run blitz at the top of the order.
“When we bowled, it [the pitch] seemed a lot slower. Obviously, gripped a bit. I think our bowlers enjoyed it,” said KKR’s Quinton de Kock after the game.
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“We’ve got guys like Jinx [Ajinkya Rahane] and Mo [Moeen Ali] who have been here before and knew [the conditions],” he added.
Despite going wicketless through his first spell, it was pacer Vaibhav Arora who set the stage for what was to follow. The right-arm bowler kept CSK’s opening batters on their toes, swinging the ball away from the two southpaws while ensuring he didn’t offer too much width.
With Arora and Moeen keeping it tight in the first three overs, CSK had to look for an avenue for acceleration. Devon Conway, who was looking more fluent than Rachin Ravindra on the day, looked to play a reverse sweep against the off-spinner, only to find himself pinned in front.
All the talk of CSK’s underutilisation of the batting PowerPlay seemed to weigh in on Rachin as he went for an uncharacteristic slog across the line against Harshit Rana when the situation demanded a steady partnership.
“Our batters are more authentic, they won’t slog their way through. We are not a side that will hit five or six sixes in the first six overs, we will have a lot more boundaries because that’s where our batters’ strength is,” Dhoni had mentioned at the toss.
But, the side lost both its openers to shots that wouldn’t be termed orthodox, piling even more pressure on the middle order, who couldn’t afford to take any sort of risks against KKR’s two trump cards – Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy.
The two mystery spinners collectively brought an end to the steady partnership brewing between Rahul Tripathi and Vijay Shankar. While the latter’s wicket came as a result of a miscued lofted shot, Tripathi was beaten fair and square by a Narine delivery that spun off the surface and careered into the stumps as he was shaping to cut.
“I think the two of them [Narine and Varun], their value is the amount of variation they bring. It’s hard to line up mystery spin bowlers like that because you never know what you’re going to get,” de Kock said.
The two tweakers played their part in choking the CSK innings, conceding just eight runs in their next four overs in tandem. CSK’s final roll of the dice, in sending Deepak Hooda as the Impact Sub, too met with an instant debacle after the batter was dismissed for nought.
All eyes were now on the captain to bail the team out of the swamp. The veteran had a humbling record against Narine, having scored just 39 runs in 75 balls with just a solitary boundary to show. And once again, it was the West Indian who accounted for the CSK skipper, catching him plumb in front for one as he looked to plant his foot across and turn the ball legside.
Another key performer in KKR’s middle-over dominance was Harshit, whose hit-the-deck approach sustained the pressure on the batters, eventually bearing fruit with the wicket of R. Ashwin.
“Because he’s our big fast bowler, we try to bowl him as a wicket-taker. He bowled with aggression tonight, which is nice, and hit the deck hard,” de Kock said about Harshit.
“He’s got a really good slower ball. We’re not trying to give him one set plan. We want to give him as many chances as he can to pick up wickets for the team,” the ‘keeper added.
Once Dhoni trudged back to the pavilion, a few members in the crowd made their way to the exits – a sight not often associated with the Chepauk faithful. The encounter threw up more questions than answers for the host, which the experienced team management will look to decipher before it’s too late.