IPL: Tournament openers across all seasons

2011 – CSK vs KKR, Chennai

Southee bowled a brilliant final over.

After the first three seasons, the teams underwent a major change as most players were put back into the auction. Two new teams (Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Pune Warriors India) entered the fray and it became a 10-team tournament. The IPL started only 6 days after India won the World Cup. The 2010 Champions Chennai Super Kings played the first game of the 4th edition of the IPL against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

For a change, CSK won the toss and batted first. On the back of Anirudha Srikanth’s 64 and a couple of cameos from Raina and Dhoni, CSK got to 153 on a sluggish Chepauk pitch.

KKR got off to a good start with Jacques Kallis and Manvinder Bisla adding 64 for the opening stand. Despite losing two wickets, KKR were in total control of the chase as they reached 111/2 in 15 overs. Gautam Gambhir had surprisingly held himself back. But in two overs, KKR lost three wickets, but Manoj Tiwary’s blitz in the 19th over reduced the equation to 9 off the last over.

However, Tim Southee bowled a superb final over as he gave away just 6 runs and took the wicket of Laxmi Ratan Shukla to seal the game for CSK.

Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings 153 for 4 (Anirudha 64, Raina 33, Kallis 2/33) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 151 for 7 (Kallis 54, Tiwary 27, Southee 1/30, Ashwin 1/26)