Ravindra Jadeja made the most of a sticky Chepauk surface as Chennai Super Kings got back to winning ways after comfortably outlasting Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets in an IPL match on Monday. It was CSK's third win in five matches, all of which came at the Chepauk ground, after losing their last two matches away from home. Jadeja, whose spin bowling has often taken a back seat in recent seasons, took three wickets in the space of eight deliveries to clinically dismantle KKR, who could manage just 137 for 9 on a track where stroke-making became difficult. The chase wasn't the problem as skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad scored 58-ball-67 and was duly supported by Daryl Mitchell (25 off 19 balls) and in-form Shivam Dube (28 off 18 balls). The chase was completed in 17.4 overs.
Fittingly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was present in the middle when they finally picked up the winning points.
The match was typically one from the KKR playbook where they always apply the choke with their spinners on a surface where the ball grabs and then their top order controls the chase which is within manageable limits, just like on Monday.
Earlier, Jadeja used his magic and ripped the heart out of KKR's batting.
After losing consecutive matches on the road, CSK were back in their element on a familiar Chepauk turf where the ball gripped and allowed Jadeja (3/18 in 4 overs) and Maheesh Theekshana (1/28 in 4 overs) to absolutely were brilliant. with both their line and length.
While KKR lost Phil Salt (0) cheaply on the very first delivery, Sunil Narine (27 off 20 balls) and young Angkrish Raghuvanshi (24 off 18 balls) picked up where they left off against DC, swapping arms and adding 56 in Powerplay but once the spinners came into action everything fell apart.
With the ball gripping and not coming onto the bat, Narine's high shot was cleared into the deep and Raghuvanshi's inexperience became his downfall as he played an indiscreet reverse sweep to a straight delivery.
Venkatesh Iyer (3) was uncomfortable against Theekshana, who got his mojo back after being hit for two sixes in his first over, after which Jadeja got his man, who looked to slog out of trouble.
With three wickets in eight balls, Jadeja looked to grab the momentum decisively in CSK's favour.
Shreyas Iyer (34 off 32 balls) never got going and Rinku Singh (9 off 14 balls) and Andre Russell (10 off 10 balls) could not raise the bar as the clever Mustafizur Rahman (2/22) and Tushar Deshpande (3 /33) were fantastic at the death.
The KKR batters tried to go hammer and tongs, but the moment Jadeja came in after Powerplay, it suddenly seemed like the pace had gone off the track.
Both paced the deliveries and threw wide lines that were beyond the striking range of the two finishers. The catching in the deep was also top class for CSK as KKR batters had a forgettable day in office.
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