IPL 2023: Rahane rampage, MS Dhoni fanfare helps CSK thrash KKR to reach top of the points table

Their captain, MS Dhoni, reminded everyone at the ground why it was so. “I have played a lot of cricket over here. I had a job in Kharagpur, which was two hours from here. The love comes from there,” said Dhoni at the toss. However, for the packed arena, it did seem like a farewell of sorts for their ‘King of the East’ (as Ravi Shastri claimed on air.

Riding on it, Chennai were off to a flier after being asked to bat first. Southpaw Devon Conway began with a bang while his partner at the other end, Ruturaj Gaikwad, after playing second fiddle, got in the groove once the powerplay ended.

KKR’s seamers failed to make any early inroads yet again, something their bowling coach Bharat Arun had pointed out a day before the game. Neither Umesh Yadav’s pace and bounce, nor Namibian David Wiese’s cutters, brought any luck. The spin twins of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy did no damage either.

Gaikwad looked in fabulous touch but was finally clean bowled after being deceived by Suyash Sharma, but by then, 73 runs were on the board and Chennai had the perfect platform for takeoff. The young leg-spinner, who ended up picking 2/29 in his 4 overs, was probably the only bright spark in KKR’s disaster class in bowling.

Conway smashed his fourth half-century on the trot for CSK. After countering the pace attack, where he employed the pull shot to perfection, the Kiwi batter masterfully thwarted the spin trio of Narine, Chakravarthy and Sharma. Numbers reveal how good Conway has been against spin in IPL year — in his five innings before this game, he had scored 134 runs in 92 balls at a phenomenal strike rate of 145.65.

Rahane 2.0

While it seemed that KKR, like they have often done before, would claw back into the game in the middle overs, Ajinkya Rahane and Shivam Dube played freely and kept counter-attacking to put the pressure back on the home team. The duo would pummel boundaries at will against Chakravarthy, Umesh Yadav, and David Weise as 56 runs came between the ninth and 14th over as they stitched a partnership of 85 in just 32 balls, ultimately where the game got away from KKR.

It seemed like Rahane was reborn in the yellow outfit of CSK. His innings was nothing out of the ordinary but full of authoritative shots in which he played with the angles. His pickup shot against Umesh Yadav, and a reverse scoop shot of Kulwant Khejroliya, were a sight to behold.

While his strike rate against seamers in this IPL is an astronomical 251, the right-hander also showed why he is equally good against spin, smashing Chakravarthy for 19 in the penultimate over. Showing great temperament and an array of shots, Rahane also reminded everyone why writing him off in the limited-overs format would be a grave mistake.

Same old problems

Since Jason Roy hurt himself in the field, he was unable to open for KKR. Sunil Narine was thus thrust into the role, something which he had excelled in the past, along with Narayan Jagadeesan, making it the fifth opening pair for KKR in IPL 2023. But it was the same story again as the Knights lost both their openers inside the first two overs, pegging them back right at the start.

After the early blows, the Knights were always playing catch-up. Roy, who came in later at number five, tonked Moeen Ali for three sixes in a row to bring back some respectability to the scoreboard. But getting 160 runs in the last 10 overs was always going to be an uphill task. Roy kept hitting the balls at will and brought up the joint-fastest fifty of this IPL in 19 balls. It was Roy’s onslaught (including five sixes and as many fours) that took KKR from 76/4 in 10 overs to 120/4 in 13, thus somehow keeping them alive in the game.

But Maheesh Theekshana, who was clobbered for a six and four, held his nerve to shatter the stumps and send Roy back to the pavilion for a 26-ball 61. Towards the end, Rinku Singh also waged a lone battle and brought up another fifty in the tournament, but in the end, their bowling had left them too high a mountain to climb.