CSKvsKKR: KKR derails CSK's middle order to pull off a thrilling win

Chennai

Kolkata Knight Riders snatched the match from the jaws of defeat to beat CSK by 10 runs.

CSK looked comfortable to win the match but the KKR made inroads by back to back wickets of Rayadu and Watson.

That was just enough to make CSK lose steam and lose the match.  Chennai was so 'un-Chennai' right from the tournament's beginning.

CSK didn't have an ideal start losing Faf Du Plessis at the beginning. The silver lining is Rayadu scoring a well controlled 30, who is recovering from injury, ably supported by Watson who scored 50 off 40.

They put the men in yellow in a commanding position which turned into shambles in no time with the wishy-washy middle order.

The feather weight middle order of CSK needs a serious revamp. Kedhar Jadhav is so redundant that he carelessly has too many dot balls to his tally when the required run rate is creeping up and above 15.

167 is just a par score in this turf and CSK panting and falling short even of that is really disappointing.

CSK lies to heavily on the shoulders of top three batsmen and descends like a house of cards after their wickets.

Credits to KKR bowlers for tightening the screws exactly at the achilles heel of CSK (their defective middle order).

Dhoni and Jadhav's number of dot balls are just too uninspiring. Dhoni should either have brought in Bravo in his place or at least in Jadhav's place. The duo's promotion up in the order has cost them the breeze like chase.

It was at first believed that KKR could only win bowling out CSK defending a chaseable 167, even containing with good line and length has done the trick for Knights.

Dinesh Karthik believed that defending scores has worked for them at the toss and has made the match another example of it.

When KKR was put to bat Rahul Tripathi's entertaining 51 ball 81 alone was worth boasting.

New entrant Karn Sharma and Dwayne Bravo bowled impressive spells to restrict KKR to 167. Their efforts were poured water on by a lacklustre CSK middle-order.

Chennai is in a fix, from here they need to win almost every match.

KKR sits pretty on the third spot registering their third win of the five matches they've played with six points.

CSK next up squares off with RCB on October 10 in the same venue who isalso the next opponent of KKR on October 12 to be played at Sharjah.

Scores in brief:

KKR 167 (20) Rahul Tripathy 81 (50) Dwayne Bravo 37/3
CSK 157/5 (20) Shane Watson 50 (40) Varun Chakravarthy 28/1