CSK vs KKR, IPL 2023: Fifties from Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh keep Kolkata alive, defeat MS Dhoni and Co by 6 wickets

Sandip G: MS Dhoni did not give Matheesha Pathirana that skin-scorching stare of his. Neither did he seethe with anger. With expressionless eyes, he got up, received the ball from the deep and under-armed it back to Pathirana, who had just bowled arguably the widest wide of the tournament. Nitish Rana bats left-handed, had he batted right-handed the delivered ball would have still been adjudged a wide. It was not a case of the ball slipping off the sweaty palms, but Pathirana missing the radar altogether. Dhoni still flung, not the full-pelt one though, and managed to brush the ball, though not prevent it from reaching the ropes. Maybe, Dhoni knew the cause was lost long ago. And in the next over, Rana, his opposite number, sealed the win with a thick-edged four.

Second last over and 4 left. Desh pande to bowl and Russell takes a single. A dot as Rana is beaten. And a wide. 2 left. Slashed for  four by Rana as Kolkata stay alive. Win by 6 wickets.

Pathirana steams in to bowl the second abll but it has evaded everyoner, including Dhoni for 5 wides. A single next as Kolkata move closer. Russell now off the mark with another single. 2 to end the over. KKR 141/4 after 18 overs

And the 18th over spells trouble for Rinku as a direct throw from Moeen runs out Rinku. The partnership is broken but KKR are almost home. KKR 132/4 after 17.1 overs

Theekshana will bowl the 17th and gives away 2 runs from the first 2 balls. 2 more from the next 2. And that brings up Rana's 50. KKR 132/3 after 17 overs

Pathirana to bowl the 16th and starts with a worker which yields a single. 2 dots follow. The fouth ball gets two while the fifth gives away a single. A no ball for height and Dhoni challenges it. And it stays a no ball. Free hit time. Gets 4 off it and 50 for Rinku. KKR 126/3 after 16 overs 

Theekshana for the 15th and Rana pulls off two back to back boundaries to welcome him. Gets two next as both batters are closing in on half centuries. The Chepauk has gone deathly quiet. KKR 117/3 after 15 overs

Jadeja willl bowl the14th and keeps it quiet in the middle for the first 4 balls, before Rinku blasts a six off the fifth. CSK running out of options. KKR 105/3 after 14 overs

Moeen will bowl the 13th and Rana gets back to back boundaries off his second and third ball. CSK in pressure. A single next and Rinku back on strike. This partnership is really killing CSK. KKR 96/3 after 13 overs

Sandip G: After Rinku Singh blocked the first two balls of the ninth over, bowled by Moeen Ali, Kolkata’s captain Nitish Rana gestured him to stay calm and carry on. The required run-rate was within grasp, less than eight runs an over, the surface offered grip and turn, Ali was bowling his best spell of this edition. KKR had lost their openers, and hence a bit of caution, even in a T20 game, would not harm them. Rinku nodded in agreement, but the next ball he stepped out and carved Ali through extra cover. He gazed at his captain and flicked a thumb’s up, as if telling him he was batting calmly. Rana walked up to him and told him again to calm down. The next ball, he went deep in the crease and looked to cut from the stumps. He didn’t middle the ball, but the thickish edge sufficed. This time, Rinku did not even bother looking at Rana.

Jadeja will bowl the 12th and yields back to back singles as Kolkata keep the scoreboard ticking. Followed by back to back dots before the 5th ball is blasted stright over the bowler's head for a flat six!!! KKR 84/3 after 12 overs

Moeen Ali will bowl the 11th and four by Rana to start the over. Ufff!!! Was that a missed catch? Yes!! Pathirana had it in his clutches but ultimately dropped in. KKR 75/3 after 11 overs

Pathirana is introduced in the attack now. Starts with a dot and then cancels it out with a wide. 2 from the next 4 balls. KKR 67/3 after 10 overs

Moeen Ali in to bowl the 9th and rinku has gone after him with back to back boundaries. Kolkata won't complain. 9 from this over. KKR 62/3 after 9 overs 

Theekshan will bowl the 8th and two runs off the first two balls. 50 up for Kolkata. Another stifling spin over as just 4 runs come from this. KKR 53/3 after 8 overs

Chennai introduce spin now with Moeen Ali. Rana with a single and Rinku is on strike.  He takes a single as well as KKR are cautious. Just 3 offf this one. KKR 49/3 after 7 overs

Tushar Deshpande will bowl the last over of the powerplay. 2 dots to start before a quick single by Rinku brings Rana on strike. and another dot. Turning out to be an excellent over by the pacer. And Rinku scoops the last ball for a 6!! KKR 46/3 after 6 overs

Sandip G: Venkatesh Iyer flashed outside the off-stump one too many times. He just stands where he is—no shuffle or pronounced transfer of weight—and throws his bat at the ball without getting his head over the front-foot. There is no pretense to reach the pitch of the ball either. In good times, his hand-eye coordination could save him—making the shot look effortless. Twice in Deepak Chahar’s second over he crashed him through covers for a pair of fours. But the fourth ball was slightly fuller and Iyer flung his hands at it. This time, though, he lost his shape, the head flailed and the upper body quivered, and ended up thick-edging the ball to Ravindra Jadeja at short-third man, the in-vogue catching zone in this IPL.

Chahar steams in to bowl the 5th and Rana has pulled it over the ropes for six!! Takes a single and Roy back on strike. And Chahar strikes again!!! Edge and Roy is gone next!! KKR 33/3 after 4.3 overs

Tushar Deshpande will bowl the 4th and terrific running by KKR to get 2 off the first ball. The next 3 balls are all dots. Brilliant fielding from Rutu to save his team 3. KKR 26/2 after 4 overs

Sandip G: Anticipation bubbled when the no-ball siren blared. Vaibhav Arora over-stepped and Chennai Super Kings would get a free-hit. Most importantly, MS Dhoni was on strike and this could be the first Dhoni moment they might have waited for the whole evening long. The image of Dhoni’s whirling sixes of the past might have flashed in front of their eyes, as though like yesterday. Dhoni opened up his hips, as Arora began to load-up. The bat-swing was smooth and with purpose, the hawkish eyes became wider and as the ball began its downward plunge, Dhoni’s bat sped to meet the ball in a furious downward arc, only that he was a fraction of a second late, the ball slid under his bat, which swished the air with all its bottom-handed violence. Another day, another time, the ball would have to be fetched from the Wallajah Road. Not this time. How cruel a climax.

Chahar to bowl the 3rd and Iyer punishes the first delivery with a four!! Comes down the tracks again and gets a single this time. gets the 4th away to the offside again and another boundary. Edges the next ball and he's gone!! The fielder in the short third area with the catch. KKR 21/2 after 2.5 overs

Tushar Deshpande to bowl the second and starts with a wide. Riy takes 2 runs next. He pulls straight away and gets a four. Powerful. Another heave and he's beaten this time. Lucky for Roy that it missed the wickets. KKR 11/1 after 2 overs

Roy and Gurbaz are at the crease. Roy is on strike. Chahar will open the attack. Roy takes a single to start and Gurbaz with another single after 2 dots. Looks like the ball has hit his knee. And he's gone!! Tries to go for a swing, slices it and a running Tushar Deshpande  with a great catch. KKR 4/1 after 1 over

Vaibhav will bowl the last over and starts with a single. Dube smashes it but hits Jadeja on the ankle. Pulls the next but just another single. Decent running to get 2 off the 3rd. Slower ball into the surface and Jadeja is gone. Dhoni up next. Beautiful yorker to beat Dhoni but it's a no ball. Free hit and that to for Dhoni. BOWLED him for the free hit!!! 2 to emnd. CSK 144/6 after 20 overs

shardul to bowl the 19th and starts with a dot. Heaves at the next ball but gets a solitary run. A full toss next but Dube can't get it away. Just a single. Very good over. Wide next. great ball as it hits Dube on the pads. Beautiful over. CSK 135/5 after 19 overs

Varun Charavarthy will bowl the 18th and yields just 2 off the first 2 balls. Short side next and Dube gobbles it up for 6. 50 up for this partnership. 2 twos to end the over. CSK 130/5 after 18 overs

Suyash to bowl the 17th and Dube with a single to bring up CSK's 100. Jadeja with a six next!! He has hit it far!! review by KKR for caught behind both nothing doing. Gets worse for Kolkata as Suyash gives away a free hit. And Dube has put the dragged down delivery for 6!!! CSK 115/5 after 17 overs

Sandip G: A drought ends, another drags on. Sunil Narine, the T20 spin-bowling colossus, was wicketless for three games. This season, he could manage only seven wickets from 12 games before the CSK encounter. He has averaged 48 runs for a wicket; he has bled 8.50 runs an over. Similarly, Ambati Rayudu, had been enduring a lean patch, managing only 118 runs in 12 innings, at an average of 16 and with a highest score of 27. Then just like that, in the space of six balls, Narine rediscovered his mojo. First ball, he made the ball skid straight and blast Rayudu’s stumps. Then with the last ball, he bowled Moeen Ali with a carrom ball that hit the stumps. And he let out a roar, holding his hands aloft and striking a victory pose. His upturn of form seems to have arrived late, as KKR’s playoff hopes are slim. But as they say, better late than never.

Shardul will bowl the 16th and Dube hits him for a four off the first ball. Will that open the floodgates? Not right now, says Thakur as he yields just 1 off the next 3. CSK 99/5 after 16 overs

Varun will bowl the 15th and Chennai are struggling for boundaries. Just singles off this over so far. The last ball beats Jadeja convincingly. CSK 92/5 after 15 overs

Suyash Sharma in to bowl the 14th and yields 3 runs from the first 3 balls. Just another single more and the last 2 balls are dots. Kolkata in firm control. CSK 87/5 after 14 overs

Narine to bowl the 13th and starts with 2 dots. The CSK batters are carefully navigating him right now after those 2 wickets. CSK 83/5 after 13 overs

Kolkata tightens the screw as they introduce Suyash Sharma next. Starts with 2 dots as Jadeja and Dube rotate strike. Dube finally breaks the shackles and hits a maximum. That has sent the KKR cheerleaders scurrying for covers. CSK 81/5 after 12 overs

And what do you know??? What an absolute peach by Narine to clean up Moeen Ali!!! Completely bamboozled. Just 1 off this over. CSK 72/5 after 11 overs

Narine to bowl the 11th and he strikes straight away!! Rayudu goes for the sweep, misses the ball and his wickets are rattled. CSK 68/4 after 10.1 overs

Shardul Thakur will bowl the 10th and Rayudu pulls but it's gone straight to the fielder. Just a single. And Conway tries a pull off his own and gets it horribly wrong. Gets an edge and it has gone high before Rinku takes the catch. CSK 66/3 after 9.3 overs

Sandip G: It’s a stroke that has been Ajinkya Rahane’s nemesis numerous times across formats. The half-steer, half-dab to third man. It seems like an instinctive reaction to shortish deliveries outside the off-stump, then something pulls him back and he goes half-heartedly at the ball. Oftentimes, he ends up chopping the ball onto the stumps or edges to the slip cordon. But this is Rahane 2.0 where he has banished all half-measures, and whichever stroke he plays, he does emphatically. Here, he waited for Harshit Rana’s ball, a slow cutter, to almost go past him and then glide it with a deft touch towards the vacant third-man region. He blocked the next ball, Test-match style proper defensive stroke, before lifting the last ball over mid-on’s head for a six.

Narine in to bowl the 9th over and starts with a single. Rayudu on strike as he navigates the next 2 balls for dots before taking a single. A half chance as the ball just evades Narine. He could have been quicker though. CSK 65/2 after 9 overs

Sandip G: Ruturaj Gaikwad was so aghast with his shot-selection that led to his dismissal—an uncharacteristic heave across the line of the ball—that he kept shadow-batting the stroke he should have played against Varun Chakravarthy’s leg-break. Perhaps he had made up his mind to swing for the fences that he did not bother picking Varun’s variation off his hands. It seemed he did not detect the direction of turn off the pitch either. Maybe he did, but was blinded by over-confidence, for until that moment of indiscretion, he was batting serenely, essaying classical strokes. But something snapped and he decided to slog him against the turn. It was not just the turn that foxed him, but the bounce that ensured the ball bounced a bit more than Gaikwad had judged. The stroke that Gaikwad practised when he walked was the shot he ought to have played, an on-drive. But the wisdom of hindsight could be as smelly as rotten eggs.

Varun will bowl the 8th and it's hit Rahane plumb. The onfield umpire raises his finger but Chennai review. And ball tracking shows that the wickets are missing. Rahane with a sigh of relief while disappointment is etched on the face of Chakravarthy.  Rahane tries to go at it again and this time fails to clear the field and holes out to Jason Roy. CSK 61/2 after 8 overs

Sunil Narine introduced in the attack now. Rahane gets a single off the first ball before Conway is beaten by the 2nd. 3 runs off the next 3 deliveries as Narine ends with another single. CSK 57/1 after 7 overs

Vaibhav Arora to end the last over of the powerplay and Conway gets 3 from the first 2 balls. A single next and rahane is back on strike. Just 4 from this one ultimately. CSK 52/1 after 6 overs

Harshit Rana will bowl the penultimate over in the powerplay. Starts with 2 off the first 3 balls before Rahane restores parity with a four. Ends the over with a maximum. CSK 48/1 after 5 overs 

Chakaravarthy in to bowl the 4th and spin strikes straight away as Gaikwad tries to go at him and is caught by Arora. Huge breakthrough for the Knights. CSK 31/1 after 3.3 overs

Vaibhav Arora in to bowl the 3rd over and Conway goes off strike with a single. Back to back singles off the second and third ball as the CSK batters refuse to let any ball go to waste. The over ends with four more. CSK 25/0 after 3 overs

Harshit Rana in to bowl the second over and starts with 2 dots. And the 4th is sent straight to the boundary by Conway. The boundaries are steadily coming. CSK 17/0 after 2 overs

Gaikwad and Conway are at the crease. Gaikwad is on strike. Vaibhav Arora will open the attack. 3 runs off the first two balls as Gaikwad and Conway rotate strikes. excellent shot by Gaikwad as he eases the fourth delivery to the boundary. CSK 9/0 after 1 over

Negligible changes from both teams as Chennai sticks with the playing XI which they fielded against Delhi Capitals while Kolkata has made just one change with Anukul Roy making way for Vaibhav Arora.

Chennai Super Kings Subs: Matheesha Pathirana, Nishant Sindhu, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Akash Singh

Kolkata Knight Riders Subs: Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, N Jagadeesan, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Nitish Rana(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana

MS Dhoni: We'll bat first. We've been slightly uncertain about the wicket, and as the tournament has progressed the pitch gets slow. Throughout the years, we have told openers to assess the pitch quickly and find what's a good score. After 6-8 overs we need to revisit our score because the ball loses its shine. I think we have done really well, but fielding is one department where we need to step up. Can improve 5-10%. Same XI for this game.

Nitish Rana: Would have liked to bat first as well. The deck looks sticky, so would have wanted to bat first and get our spinners in play. I think pressure was there in the first game as well, it is there now as well. Such is the IPL, we can't take it lightly. If any department falters, then 90% the result goes against you. So we need to be clinical in all departments. One change for us - Anukul Roy goes out, Vaibhav Arora comes in.

Time for the toss now and Dhoni has won it. He says he wants to bat first.

? Toss Update ?@ChennaiIPL win the toss and elect to bat first against @KKRiders.

Follow the match ?? https://t.co/d7m0BcEtvi #TATAIPL | #CSKvKKR pic.twitter.com/NCxFDhQ9J5

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 14, 2023

"61 meters square boundary on one side, 70 on the other, and 77 down the ground. (Pitch) Looked the same back in 2010 when I was playing. Really really dry. Lack of grass. (Ball is) Going to hold up in this wicket. When you think back to the last innings here - Moeen Ali ripping a couple past the left-hander's bat. Going to be a lot of spin. Got to bat first, no doubt about it. Par score about 160-165," say Sanjay Manjrekar and Matthew Hayden

Looking at the Purple Cap race, GT's Rashid Khan leads with 23 wicketys. He is followed by RR's Yuzvendra Chahal (21) and MI's Piyush Chawla, GT's Mohammad Shami and CSK's Tushar deshpande, all of whom have 19 wickets.

Coming to the Orange Cap race, RCB's Faf du Plessis rules the roost with 631 runs. He is followed by RR's Yashasvi Jaiswal  (575), MI's Suryakumar Yadav (479), GT's Shubman Gill (475) and CSK's devon Conway (468)

Taking a closer look at the points table, the two sides are dramatically opposite to each other. Chennai are flying high in the second spot while Kolkata are struggling at 8th.

Andre Russell, who has shown glimpses of his match winning form in the match against Punjab Kings, hasn't yet set this season alight. He, however, has a terrific record against Chennai against whom he has scored 309 runs at a strike rate of 168.85 while at Chepauk alone, he has 203 runs at a strike rate of 150.37.

The other match of the day was between Rajasthan Royals and Royal challengers Bangalore and it's already over. Rajasthan crumbled while chasing 171 and ended with just 59 in 10.3 overs. This is the 3rd lowest total in IPL history. Read more in our other match blog.