Shubman Gill’s 57 off 36 balls anchored the Kolkata Knight Riders’ successful chase as they beat the Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in Kolkata.
The 18-year-old ― who was India’s top run-scorer during their U19 World Cup-winning campaign earlier this year ― sealed a victory for his side after a poor start to their chase. He took his side from 97-4 to seal a six-wicket victory after an incredible maiden IPL half-century.
This came after MS Dhoni took his side to a competitive total after CSK lost four wickets for 119 runs after 14.4 overs. The visiting captain scored a 25-ball 43 to help set a 178-run target for the hosts to chase.
Proteas captain, Faf du Plessis, helped the visitors to a steady start – his 15-ball 27 in a 48-run stand with Shane Watson helped set the foundation. Piyush Chawla (2-35) and Sunil Narine (2-20) took two wickets apiece to slow down CSK’s charge before Dhoni’s knock helped CSK to 176-5.
Chawla removed Du Plessis and Ravindra Jadeja (15) while Narine took out Watson (36 off 25 balls) and Ambati Rayudu (21 off 17 balls). Suresh Raina also contributed with a 26-ball 31 before he was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav to restrict CSK to 101-3 after 11.4 overs.
KKR’s chase was rocked by Lungi Ngidi who dismissed Chris Lynn (12) in his first over. After two dot balls, Lynn smashed Ngidi for consecutive sixes and the 22-year-old responded with a third dot ball before removing the Australian big hitter with his final ball.
Narine got stuck in, but could not prevent the fall of his partner Robin Uthappa, who was removed by KM Asif on six in the fifth over with 40 runs on the board.
Narine looked dangerous, but could only manage four fours and two sixes for his knock of 32 off 20 balls, before he picked out Dwayne Bravo in the deep. Harbhajan Singh also picked up a wicket as he removed Rinku Singh (16) to reduce the hosts to 97-4, four balls into the 12th over.
Gill kept his side in the hunt. Supported by his skipper Dinesh Karthik (45 off 18 balls), the pair struck 83 off 36 balls. The youngster struck two sixes and six fours while Karthik contributed seven fours and a six, to claim a six-wicket win with 14 balls remaining.
The win for KKR took them to 10 points, equal with Kings XI Punjab, while Chennai Super Kings dropped to second, their net run rate separating them from Sunrisers Hyderabad in first.
Photo: Saikat Das /SPORTZPICS for BCCI
