CSK vs KKR, IPL 2025 Highlights: Sunil Narine’s all round efforts help Kolkata Knight Riders demolish Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets

Just 12 needed now. Can they end it in this over with 2 sixes? Remember, if they win in 12 overs, they go third in the table. Ahmad back and Rahane with a single. Two back to back dots now. And he finally gets a boundary!! Swings and finds the ropes. 7 needed now. And 1 to end.

KKR 98/2 after 10 overs

Ashwin back and oh my word!! Rahane has been dropped! The ball was dying on Shankar as he pulled off a dive but can't get his fingers underneath it. A single next and just 14 needed now. Can Rinku finish this off? Nope, he takes a single, followed by another single by Rahane.

KKR 92/2 after 9 overs 

Noor Ahmad in the attack now and he cleans up Narine. He tried to slog Ahmad and ends up getting his stumps rattled. He departs after almost setting KKR for the win.

KKR 85/2 after 7.1 overs.

Ashwin back and yields a single off the first two deliveries. And Narine swings for the fences again to get another 6!! That is followed up with another six!! Ashwin getting sent to the cleaners. A single next and Rahane can finish this over. A dot to end.

KKR 85/1 after 7 overs 

Khaleel Ahmed back in the attack and starts with a dot. And follows that up with a 6!! Rahane just picks it up and deposits it over the ropes!! A single next to give the strike to Narine. And he slaps the next delivery for a staight six over long on!! And a four to end.

KKR 71/1 after 6 overs

Anshul Kamboj back in the attack and he has cleaned up QDK. The Proteas open looked to swing across and misses it altogether!!

de Kock b Anshul Kamboj 23(16)

Ashwin in the attack now and Narine starts with a 4!! Two singles from the next two deliveries. Narine pumps the next delivery over the backward square leg ropes for a SIX!! 12 from this one.

KKR 46/0 after 4 overs.

Khaleel continues and QDK with a single to start this one off. Great effort in the deep by Kamboj who can't catch the ball. A wide and a single follows. QDK pulls the next one for another six!! And finishes this onbe with another six!! KKR are in ahurry!!

KKR 34/0 after 3 overs

Kamboj in the attack and QDK pulls the first ball for a six!!! Over deep midwicket it goes. Oh dear!! It's a no ball now. This blaring sound is the last thing that the bowler wanted to hear.  Can't get the connection for the free hit as he takes a single. A dot next before Narine mines 2 runs. The intent is clear. A single again and QDK can see this over off. A single to end.

KKR 19/0 after 2 overs

Khaleel steams in and de Kock plays two defensive strokes. Two dots too start as Chepauk cheers for each one of them. Nothing off the next two as well as the South African is cautious. Finally a single to put Narine on strike. AND HE SLAMS A SIX TO OPEN HIS ACCOUNT!!

KKR 7/0 afer 1 over

Back live for the chase and Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock are in the middle.. Khaleel with the ball. Can he work magic? If KKR win by 12 overs, they'll be third. Let's see. Here we go.  

Last over now. What can Dube do? Vaibhav will bowl. And he starts with a wide. And a dot follows before Dube takes 2 off the second ball. And he slams a four to fine leg now off his top edge. Something to cheer for finally for CSK. And another dot!! Two more to follow and it's 99 now. Dube migt have pulled something here as the physio checks it out. Ends it with a boundary. CSK 103/9, their lowest in the ground.

Last two overs now. Harshit Rana to bowl this one. Will Shivam Dube go all out in these two overs? Harshit to bowl and Dube swings and misses. Follows that up with another dot!! Excellent bowling by Rana. And he finally gets a four!! Straight down the ground. First boundary after 63 balls. A dot and a wide next. 1 to end.

CSK 90/9 after 19 overs

Last 3 overs now and Dube really needs to get going. he has nothing to lose at the moment so might as well take on the bowlers. Arora to bowl the 18th and Dube takes a single. AND OUT!!! Noor pulls, gets it all wrong and Varun with a catch!!

Noor Ahmad c Varun Chakaravarthy b Vaibhav Arora 1(8)

Varun Chakaravarthy continues and Dube with a single to start. Noor on strike now and he defends the next ball before getting beaten off the next. Just the single from the over and 5 dots.

CSK 78/8 after 17 overs

Narine in the attack and gives away 1 from the first two deliveries. AND HE HAS STRUCK!! Dhoni has been given out LBW. CSK take the review. No bat and he's gone!! All the air has been sucked out of Chepauk.

Dhoni lbw b Narine 1(4)

Varun in the attack now and Dube with a single to start. AND THAT'S ANOTHER DOWN!!! Hooda chips and Vaibhav Arora with a diving catch!! The wheels are coming off CSK now.

Hooda c Vaibhav Arora b Varun Chakaravarthy 0(4)

Narine back in the attack and Dube defends the first ball before taking a single next. AND JADEJA IS GONE TOO!! Feathers it behind to de Kock!!

Jadeja c de Kock b Narine 0(2)

Harshit Rana back to bwol the 13th and Dube ramps for a single. Ashwin defends the next one. Another defensive stroke as Ashwin stays rooted to the spot. And that's another dot as the pressure starts building on Ashwin. And it pays off as Ashwin goes for a big shot and holes out to Arora in the deep.

Ashwin c Vaibhav Arora b Harshit Rana 1(7)

Moeen Ali back in the attack and Dube defends the first ball before letting the next go out for a wide. He takes a single next to put Ashwin on strike. He gets off the mark with a single now and Dube will face the last 3 deliveries. Another single as runs coming in a trickle now. Just 4 from this one. Excellent.

CSK 69/4 after 12 overs

Narine will continue and starts with 1 off the first two deliveries. The crowd finds their voice as Dube wil now face a spinner. He takes a single now, followed by another by Tripathi. AND GONE!!! Narine strikes to clean up Tripathi!! The pressure was building and it showed with his stroke.

Tripathi b Narine 16(22) 

Varun back in the attack after the break and Tripathi takes a single to start this one off. Shankar pulls but there's protection in the boundary to keep it down to 2. And he tries another pull and this time, he holes out to Moeen Ali.

Shankar c Moeen Ali b Varun Chakaravarthy 29(21)

Narine in the attack now and yields 2 runs from the first two deliveries. 3 from the next 2 balls as the CSK batters keep the scoreboard ticking. 6 from this one.

CSK 56/2 after 9 overs

Harshit to bowl the 8th and again!!! Shankar survives again!! Iyer was under the ball and he lost it completely!! That's another sitter dropped by KKR. Tripathi joins the party as he places the 4th ball to the third man boundary. 7 from this one. 50 up for CSK.

CSK 50/2 after 8 overs 

Moeen Ali in the attack and Shankar with a six!! That dropped catch is proving to be pretty costly now. 12 from this over as well as the CSK batters keep the scoreboard ticking.

CSK 43/2 after 7 overs

Varun Chakravarthy in the attack now and Tripathi with a single as Russell fumbles. Shankar, who was dropped in the previous over by Narine, takes a single next. and he slams back to back boundaries next as he gets going. 13 from this one.

CSK 31/2 after 6 overs

Harshit in the attack and he strikes immediately as Rachin gets a  leading edge and that has goone high and it falls safely into the palms of Ajinkya Rahane!!

Ravindra c Rahane b Harshit Rana 4(9)

On to the 4th over and Chennai will need to get a move on. And Conway is gone!! Moeen strikes but CSK review for an LBW. Very close here. No bat or glove says UltraEdge. And the wicket is umpire's call. And that's gone!!

Conway lbw b Moeen Ali 12(11)

Arora continues and starts with a dot as Rachin keeps the ball out. Follows it up with another as Rachin can't get a shot away. Excellent line by the bowler. Almost a run out but Rachin survives. Conway switches gears as he slaps the next ball down the ground for a four!! Just 6 from this though.

CSK 16/0 after 3 overs

Moeen Ali in the attack and almost takes a catch of Conway on the followthrough. Very, very lucky. A single from this over so far. Brilliant fielding from Rinku Singh to save a boundary!! Another single next by Conway to put Rachin back on strike. A single to end. Excellent over.

CSK 10/0 after 2 overs

Arora comes steaming in and gets swing as Rachin takes a single to get off the mark. back to back dots next as Conway stays rooted to the crease. And Arora errs in line and Conway places it through the fielders for a 4!! 6 from this over.

CSK 6/0 after 1 over

Here come the two Kiwi openers Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway. Vaibhav Arora has the ball in hand. We are ready to go as the packed Chepauk waits with bated breaths.

The last time Dhoni captained the Chennai Super Kings side, the team went on the win he IPL crown back in 2023 when they defeated Gujarat Titans in a marathon final which lasted over two days due to adverse weather conditions in Ahmedabad.

The KKR bowlers Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine will face Shivam Dube who has been the master of hitting spinners. With Dube blowing hot and cild this season, CSK will hope he can ake on KKR's mystery spinners. 

KKR: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy

CSK: Matheesha Pathirana, Jamie Overton, Deepak Hooda, Shaik Rasheed, Kamlesh Nagarkoti

Quinton de Kock(w), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy

Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed

Ajinkya Rahane: We'll bowl first. There were a lot of positives from the last game. We as a team played really well. It is about improving each game. This looks like a good wicket, won't change much. We are batting deep, so that's why we look to bowl first and chase things down. One change - Moeen Ali comes in for Spencer.

MS Dhoni: We were looking to bat first as well. Quite a few occasions where we tried to chase it down and what we realised is that the wicket slows down a bit, so if you don't get a good start then the middle order comes under pressure. He has fractured something on his elbow, so he is ruled out of the tournament. It is important, we have lost too many matches and now it is important to do the basics right - have dot balls, take our catches. A couple of games we lost by big margins, but otherwise it was about the small things - about one over going for 20 runs. Our batters are more authentic as batters, they won't slog everything. They just need to back their instincts. It is important to start well, get boundaries early on and try to get a couple of early wickets as well. Couple of changes for us - Tripathi comes in for Ruturaj, and Anshul Kambhoj in for Mukesh.

Here are the two captains in the middle. The coin goes up and Kolkata Knight Riders win the toss and opt to bowl first against Chennai Super Kings

CSK: L,L,L,L,W

KKR: L,W,L,W,L

Kolkata vice captain Venkatesh Iyer reckons that spinner Varun Chakravarthy will have a good game at the Chepauk considering it's his home ground. Plus, there's also Moeen Ali and skipper Ajinkya Rahane who are former CSK players and Iyer reckons that experience will pay dividends for KKR.

It's a warm and humid day in Chennai but it's going to be breezy. The pitch used for this match has been only used once, that was vs MI which is the only match CSK won this season. It is a black soil pitch and has anice covering of grass which will hold well due to humidity. It's a good batting wicket but don't expect a 200 score. There might be dew in the evening, says Deep Dasgupta and Matthew Hayden. 

April 12: Lucknow Super Giants vs Gujarat Titans at 3:30 PM in Lucknow

April 12: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Punjab Kings at 7:30 PM in Hyderabad

April 13: Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru at 3:30 PM in Jaipur

April 13: Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians at 7:30 PM in Delhi

April 14: Lucknow Super Giants vs Chennai Super Kings at 7:30 PM in Lucknow

April 15: Punjab Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders at 7:30 PM in New Chandigarh

April 16: Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals at 7:30 PM in Delhi

April 17: Mumbai Indians vs Sunrisers Hyderabad at 7:30 PM in Mumbai

April 18: Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Punjab Kings at 7:30 PM

The team batting first at Chepauk have won 51 matches while the team chasing winning 37, as seen by CSK's inability to chase down below-200 totals in their last 2 matches this season. The highest score here is 246/5 scored by CSK against Rajasthan Royals in 2010 while the lowest is 70 by Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs CSK. The highest run chase achieved here is 201/6 by the Punjab Kings against CSK in 2023. 

With Chepauk offering a slow surface and Chennai lining up with Noor Ahmad, expect Kolkata to give Rahmanullah Gurbaz a chancve against his international teammate. With Quinton de Kock in lean form, Gurbaz, who helped replaced Phil Salt at the business end of the IPL last year, might be the answer to KKR's opening woes.

Ruturaj Gaikwad who was ruled out of the IPL with an elbow injury sent a heartfelt message to CSK, saying he'll be supporting them from the dug out and cheering for 'the young wicketkeeper' who'll be leading them. He said he wanted to lift CSK out of the situation they are in with 1 win in 5 matches, adding he was gutted to miss the tournament.

When it comes to choosing between two champion franchises, it gets difficult for experts but not so much for veteran Virender Sehwag who backed Kolkata to come out trumps in tonight's encounter. According to him, KKR is playing the better cricket between the two sides with their bowlers and batters expected to fire at Chepauk. He also pointed out Chennai's batting does not have the bite this season and CSK can only win if their batting fires.

Chennai will come face to face with their former player Dwayne Bravo tonight, albeit in the KKR's mentor's seat. The WI player, who won the IPL four times as a player and as a coach, was greeted jokingly by MS Dhoni as a traitor during the nets. Both then hugged each other and had a good laugh

Shreyas Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Nitish Rana, Sherfane Rutherford, Phil Salt, KS Bharat, Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Suyash Sharma, Allah Ghazanfar, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Vaibhav Arora, Mitchell Starc, Chetan Sakariya

Ajay Mandal, Ajinkya Rahane, Deepak Chahar, Devon Conway, Maheesh Theekshana, Mitchell Santner, Moeen Ali, Mukesh Choudhary, Nishant Sindhu, Prashant Solanki, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Shaik Rasheed, Simarjeet Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi, Mustafizur Rahman, Avanish Rao Aravelly

Devon Conway (Rs 6.25 crore), Rahul Tripathi (Rs 3.40 crore), Rachin Ravindra (Rs 4 crore), R Ashwin (Rs. 9.75 crore), Khaleel Ahmed (Rs 4.80 crore), Noor Ahmad (Rs 10 crore), Vijay Shankar (Rs 1.2 crore), Sam Curran (Rs 2.4 crore), Shaik Rasheed (Rs 30 lakh), Anshul Kamboj (Rs 3.40 crore), Mukesh Choudhary (Rs 30 lakh), Deepak Hooda (Rs 1.70 crore), Gurjaptneet Singh (Rs 2.20 crore), Nathan Ellis (Rs 2 crore), Jamie Overton (Rs 1.5 crore), Kamlesh Nagarkoti (Rs 30 lakh), Ramakrishna Ghosh (Rs 30 lakh), Shreyas Gopal (Rs 30 lakh), Vansh Bedi (Rs 55 lakh), Andre Siddarth (Rs 30 lakh)

Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 23.75 crore), Quinton de Kock (Rs 3.60 crore), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Rs 2 crore), Anrich Nortje (Rs 6.50 crore), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Rs 3 crore), Mayank Markande (Rs 30 lakh), Vaibhav Arora (Rs 1.80 crore), Rovman Powell (Rs 1.50 crore), Manish Pandey (Rs 75 lakh), Spencer Johnson (Rs 2.80 crore), Luvnith Sisodia (Rs 30 lakh), Ajinkya Rahane (Rs 1.50 crore), Anukul Roy (Rs 40 lakh), Moeen Ali (Rs 2 crore), Umran Malik (Rs 75 lakh)

Rinku Singh (Rs 13 cr), Varun Chakravarthy (Rs 12 cr), Sunil Narine (Rs 12 cr), Andre Russell (Rs 12 cr), Ramandeep Singh (Rs 4 cr), Harshit Rana (Rs 4 cr)

Ruturaj Gaikwad (Rs 18 cr), Ravindra Jadeja (Rs 18 cr), Matheesha Pathirana (Rs 13 cr), Shivam Dube (Rs 12 cr), MS Dhoni (Rs 4 cr).

The last time these two sides met was in IPL 2024 when Chennai got the better of the eventul champions when they won by 7 wickets. Batting first, Shreyas Iyer top scored with 34 as KKR posted 137/9 with Ravindra Jadeja and Tushar Deshpande taking 3 wickets apiece. Chasing, Ruturaj Gaikwad starred with an unbeaten 67 as he guided CSK home with 14 balls to spare. 

The controversy around the Eden Gardens pitch was reignited on Tuesday when skipper Ajinkya Rahane said that if he says something about the wicket, there will be 'bawaal'. He also said that the pitch curator had also gotten enough publicity. TRhe skipper added that if he wanted to raise the issue of the pitch to anyone, he would do that with the IPL and concerned authorities.

Apr 15 at 7:30 PM vs Punjab Kings in New Chandigarh

Apr 21 at 7:30 PM vs Gujarat Titans in Kolkata

Apr 26 at 7:30 PM vs Punjab Kings in Kolkata

Apr 29 at 7:30 PM vs Delhi Capitals in Delhi

May 4 at 3:30 PM vs Rajasthan Royals in Kolkata

May 7 at 7:30 PM vs Chennai Super Kings in Kolkata

May 10 at 7:30 PM vs Sunrisers Hyderabad in Hyderabad

May 17 at 7:30 PM vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Bengaluru