IPL 2018: Match 33, KKR vs CSK - Who Said What

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) came out on top in the clash of the Titans as they beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 6 wickets. The target of 178 runs was chased down easily by them as the skipper Dinesh Karthik and the U19 star Shubman Gill stitched an unbeaten stand of 83 runs for the fifth wicket. It was some sublime hitting from them in the second half of the innings which never gave the Men in Yellow to come back in the game. However, the game was also set up by the bowlers who kept the big guns of the opposition quiet upfront and restricted them.

Though it wasn’t easy for the home side at the start of the innings as their explosive openers had to face the bouncer barrage with the new ball. Chris Lynn succumbed to it in the very first over but his partner kept going thanks to a couple of drops from Ravindra Jadeja. The wickets kept on falling regularly but they were always ahead in the game courtesy the early assault and then Gill proved his worth at number 4 position and played a match-winning knock of 57 runs. Karthik too was brilliant during his stay in the middle and stayed unbeaten on 45 off 18 balls.

Earlier, CSK got off to a decent start after being invited to bat first. They managed to score around 50 runs in the powerplay and then allowed Suresh Raina to get off to a flyer. At the halfway stage, it looked like they would touch 200 with 9 wickets hand. But the spinners bowled beautifully and picked wickets in the next five overs which forced MS Dhoni to delay his assault. It was him who once again came to the fore for his team and slammed 43* off 25 balls with a solitary four and 4 gigantic maximums which helped them score 177 runs.

Man of the Match, Sunil Narine said:

 I’ll stick to my bowling (when asked if he was a batting all-rounder or bowling all-rounder). That made me the cricketer I am today. Nice to come out with a win.

Getting the freedom to play my shots, being free. That’s the key. They back me whatever happens. He relies highly on spin. It’s a total team effort.

Seamers did the job early and We finished it off. Everyone takes their success differently. For me, it’s to be as humble as possible,. I am enjoying my game with good performances.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain, Dinesh Karthik said:

Credit to the franchisee. They picked lot of under-19 players. They are really skilled players. It’s little harsh on him. The number of times, he’s been able to hit boundary off the first ball.

That boy is special. I don’t want to hype it up and put extra pressure on him. I can see a lot of Indian Blues in him. I picked it up early, that we can bowls lot of spin. Our bowlers are so confident.

They wanted to bowl. You need to be pushing boundaries. He (Narine) is a thorough all-rounder. Provides impetus at the top He bowled the pressure overs. He’s a great player to have in the team.

Chennai Super Kings captain, MS Dhoni said:

If the wicket remained the same the total was decent, I felt this wicket was on the slower side but you have to hit the seam hard. When you are bowling the slower ball, if you can hit the seam then you can generate variable bounce. In the second half wicket became much better under the lights.

The easy way is to compare the two balls after 20 overs. Second ball will be in the better shape. Ball was coming nicely under the lights. Overall disappointing with the loss, we need to do better than this in the bowling department. A few more runs would have helped. We knew the kind of fielding we will do after the team was picked.

But what is more disappointing is guys are not aware on the field. Your speed might not be too much but you have to be attentive in the field. Classic example is Hussey, when he was playing for CSK he was not the quickest but he used to anticipate really well and that used to give him extra second.

That is the kind of commitment needed in the field. If no one is bowling well, keep shuffling bowlers around. If no one does well, game will be over soon. We are slightly on and off in the field.

Keeping it simple helps, I think bowlers need to vary their pace and you need to be aware of the strengths of the batsmen and accordingly you need to bowl. You can tell bowler a lot but when they have ball in the hand they are on their own.

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