In the first match of the IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated the defending champion Chennai Super Kings. MS Dhoni stormed against Kolkata Knight Riders today. Dhoni gave Chennai Super Kings a fightback with an unbeaten half-century with 7 fours and 1 six.
Chennai suffered a batting collapse
Chennai suffered a batting collapse after losing the toss and electing to bat at the Wankhede. At one point, there was also the fear of falling below a hundred. Chennai scored 131 runs in an innings that misjudged 40-year-old Dhoni’s age.
But Kolkata made no mistake in setting a target of 132 runs. In the first match of the 15th IPL, Kolkata won by 6 wickets under the new captain. Shreyas Iyer’s team won with 9 balls to spare.
Dhoni did not toss as a captain
AB de Villiers was expecting something like that. As the leadership burden is removed, we will once again see the same MS Dhoni – the batsman who has won the hearts of the audience by hitting sixes and fours with a fearless face. Dhoni has been released in the 15th year of the IPL. Chennai is on the field, but Dhoni did not toss as a captain. He just played as a player. And on that day, Chennai’s highest scorer is Dhoni.
Poor start by Chennai
Despite Robin Uthappa’s best effort, Chennai did not have a very good start. Put into bat after losing the toss, Chennai were 35 for the loss of 2 wickets in the powerplay. A little later, Uthappa, who scored 28 off 21 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes, also returned. Chennai lost 5 wickets for 61 runs in 10.5 overs with a ridiculous runout. The new skipper Ravindra Jadeja then scored 8 off 10 balls at the crease. Dhoni came down to seven.
Surprisingly slow start by Dhoni and Jadeja
After that, the two played such a game together that not only neutral, but also the Chennai supporters raised questions. Chennai are 84 at the end of 17 overs. That is, only 23 runs in a 37-ball partnership! The current captain is unbeaten on 16 off 22 balls and the former captain is 15 off 25 balls.
Dhoni unleashed
Andre Russell’s third over made the situation a little tolerable. Dhoni’s three fours in that over yielded 14 runs. Chennai had not crossed 100 yet. In the next over, just 4 runs came from Shivam Mavi’s first four balls. Dhoni’s four off the fifth ball with a full-length ball over covers. The next ball is a full toss waist height. Dhoni didn’t play properly, but the top edge became a six. At the end of the 15-run over, Chennai’s run rate did not cross 6.
The third ball in Russell’s last over was short. But the speed of the slower is already known to Dhoni’s effortless pull. Off the very next ball, almost the yorker ball was seen in that famous bottom hand shot of Dhoni. Dhoni took a single off the next ball by pushing the ball over long off. 50 off the 38th ball! Dhoni got 35 runs off the last 13 balls. Jadeja (26*) hit a six off Russell’s full toss extra cover off the last ball of the innings. Chennai have scored 47 runs in the last 3 overs thanks to Dhoni. But the collection was no more than 131.
Kolkata have had a great start
Kolkata have had a great start to the chase. Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer scored 43 without losing a wicket in the powerplay. When Iyer returned for 16 runs in the seventh over, Nitish Rana took charge of the attack. Rana walks back after scoring 21 runs off Bravo in the 10th over. But Kolkata had no worries about the match. Kolkata needed 56 runs from 10 overs, with 8 wickets in hand.
Kolkata won the inaugural match of IPL 2022 with ease
Ajinkya Rahane walks back to leave the team on 87. Shreyas Iyer and Sam Billings took a breather after Rahane’s departure for 44 runs. Kolkata did not get any boundary off 29 balls. Billings changed gears by hitting Bravo for a four in the 16th over. A six through mid-wicket to Jadeja in the next over. Billings departed for 25 runs with the match in hand. Iyer (20*) finished the task of taking 9 runs off 15 balls with 9 balls remaining.
– Gamerz Lodge
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