Chennai, April 11: Sunil Narine didn’t concede a single boundary in his miserly spell of 3-13 as a clinical performance of Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowlers helped them restrict a listless Chennai Super Kings to a below-par 103/9, their lowest total at their home venue MA Chidambaram Stadium, here on Friday.

On a black-soil pitch, spin dictated terms from the word go, Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy and Moeen Ali, brought to counter left-handed batters, picked six wickets collectively as CSK’s batting never got going.

CSK wanted to bat first after losing the toss, but didn’t take full advantage of their decision as they could never break free from the disciplined bowling by KKR bowlers. It took Shivam Dube’s unbeaten 29-ball 31 to save CSK from being all out for their lowest total (79) in IPL’s history.

Devon Conway began by taking two boundaries off pacer Vaibhav Arora, before being dismissed for 12 when his attempt to reverse-sweep off Moeen resulted in him being trapped lbw in a wicket-maiden over. In the next over, CSK were dealt another blow when Rachin Ravindra miscued a slog off Harshit Rana and was caught at cover.

KKR could have got another wicket if Vijay Shankar wasn’t dropped by Moeen at mid-off when on zero. From there, Shankar pulled and lofted Chakaravarthy for boundaries, before hoicking Moeen over mid-wicket for six. Shankar’s charmed life continued when Venkatesh Iyer dropped him at mid-wicket on 20.

Despite that, CSK’s struggles never ended, as their almighty slide began. Shankar’s lucky stay ended at 29 when he mistimed a sweep to deep backward square leg off Chakaravarthy, while a struggling Tripathi played all over an off-break from Moeen and was beaten on the inside edge before being castled for 16.

Ravichandran Ashwin’s promotion backfired as he holed out to long-on off Harshit Rana, while Ravindra Jadeja nicked behind for a duck off Narine, and Impact Player Deepak Hooda chipped to short mid-wicket off Chakaravarthy. CSK’s hopes for big runs from MS Dhoni ended when he was trapped lbw for just one by Narine.

Dube, who was watching CSK’s slide from the other end, broke the 63-ball boundary drought by smashing Rana down the ground for four, before getting a top edge off Arora for another boundary. But while taking the second run, Dube pulled the muscles in his left leg, and despite that, he smashed a half-volley to long-off on the last ball of the innings to take CSK past 100.

Brief scores:

Chennai Super Kings 103/9 in 20 overs (Shivam Dube 31 not out, Vijay Shankar 29; Sunil Narine 3-13, Harshit Rana 2-16) against Kolkata Knight Riders

--IANS

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