Shivam Dube’s rush of blood made things complicated for Chennai Super Kings. The final over started with CSK needing eight runs. MS Dhoni rolled back the years and hit Andre Russell over the deep mid-wicket boundary. Game over. ‘Dhoni, Dhoni’ chants serenaded the great man on the last legs of his glorious career. As for Kolkata Knight Riders, lights were all but out on their playoff hopes. But Kolkata hardly cared. Their hero stayed there until the end to pull off a victory. The fans’ evening was made.
The backdrop was different for this game. The National Anthem was played before the match, while a poignant display on a side screen read: “Proud of the Indian Armed Forces.” A symbolic tribute to Operation Sindoor was given.
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and opted to bat. Early into the proceedings, came the news of Rohit Sharma’s Test retirement. The giant screen put out his stats. It was a must-win game for KKR, while Chennai Super Kings were playing for pride. In the grand scheme of things, though, the game became a tad peripheral – not the back page lead at least.
That was when Urvil Patel arrived to light up the show. Chasing 180 for victory, CSK had lost Ayush Mhatre in the second ball of their innings. For a while, Urvil stole the home team’s thunder. He shuffled across his stumps and whipped a fullish delivery from Vaibhav Arora before laying into Moeen Ali. A couple of sixes and a four were taken off the KKR spinner and Devon Conway’s dismissal didn’t dent his aggression. A slower ball from Harshit Rana was sent over the long-on boundary as well. The 26-year-old was going at a strike rate of over 300. But maybe, he played one shot too many.
Rana altered his line and bowled outside off. Urvil tried to hit it a little too hard and lost his shape. Varun Chakravarthy took a sharp catch at short third man. The youngster realised his mistake and trudged off. The country’s fastest T20 centurion came to the CSK fold only before this match – the team’s third replacement of the season. He is another youngster the five-time IPL champions can look forward to, as rebuilding has become the need of the hour.
“We are not going to entirely skin the cat, but there will be a tweak in the template,” CSK bowling coach Eric Simons had said at the pre-match press conference. This game gave a peek into the future, via Urvil and then the fresh-faced and fearless Dewald Brevis. Thirty runs were taken off an Arora over and the equation came down to 57 runs from 54 balls at the end of 11th. Suddenly, CSK had a clear upper hand. Brevis’s fifty came off 22 balls, but he should have played out Varun’s final over instead of trying to hit him over the long-on fence. He couldn’t get under the ball enough and Rinku Singh was not going to drop the catch. It was a sensational knock, but the South African should have finished things off. All these youngsters are work in progress. Going ahead, they will show more maturity and will serve the franchise well.
The Eden crowd was a cross-dresser. A turnout of 41,000 was underwhelming in a game that could well be Dhoni’s last dance at this storied venue. Yellow shirts comfortably outnumbered their purple counterparts, but when KKR did well, their flags drowned the yellow wave. As Dhoni walked in at the fall of the sixth wicket, ‘home comfort’ was dished out to the visitors.
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The equation read 48 runs off 36 balls – perfectly cut-out for the CSK skipper. He didn’t need to force the pace, allowing rotating the strike to take care of the chase. Varun and Sunil Narine were smartly played out and although the asking rate climbed a bit, it was always under control.
Earlier, Dhoni’s spin-choke restricted KKR to 179/6. Noor Ahmad was the standout performer with 4/31. But Ravichandran Ashwin (0/19 from three overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/34 from four overs), too, bowled well. Dhoni effected a smart stumping to dismiss Angkrish Raghuvanshi off Noor. In his ‘second home’, the legend returned as a winner.
For the record, CSK won by two wickets with two balls to spare. Dube scored 45 off 40 balls and Dhoni remained unbeaten on 17 off 18.