KKR vs Chennai 2013 - A review

Match 26 : A match between 2 IPL giants, a match between champion teams, a match between two of the most tactical Indian captains. One, the reigning champions led by fearless Gambhir while the other known as the Manchester United of IPL ,lead by cool Dhoni.

Toss was won by Gambhir and surprisingly he chose to bat, under overcast conditions. The team combination was surprising as well, with neither McCullum nor Bisla in it. So they had to do with the part time keeper in Das.

Gambhir came in to bat and surprise surprise in walks Yusuf Pathan with him. Yes, the man who hasn’t hit an IPL 50 in last 3 years. But as he walked out to bat, flashed scenes from India -Pakistan T-20 final and we all remember that six which was hit by him. The openers started well with Gambhir and Pathan going more than six runs per over. At 46 Gambhir fell and Kallis followed quickly (without even facing a ball) courtesy some terrific fielding at point by Badrinath. Morgan was taken by Bravo at 2. This followed a collapse, well we all expected Kolkata to do so especially when the big three in Gambhir, Kallis and Morgan didn’t score. India’s number 1 spinner in Ashwin and Jadeja ripped apart the middle and lower middle order of Kolkata. Jadeja aced by picking 3 wickets while Ashwin picked up 2 giving a meager 20 and 21 runs respectively. Kolkata finished at a below par 119 in 20 overs with Chennai needing just at 6 runs per over.

In came Chennai and well if you were surprised seeing Pathan open for Kolkata, Dhoni planned an even bigger one for us. With Mr.Cricket walked in Ravichandran Ashwin, yes , you saw it right Ravichandran Ashwin. Balaji opened the bowling with the mystery spin wizard Senanayake and though economical but they failed to pick up wickets in first 3-4 overs. It was the other spin wizard in Sunil Narine which was required to break the partnership with Ashwin getting caught by Senanayake. Vijay and Raina fell early with hardly contributing anything to the score. Meanwhile Hussey was stable at one end and going well. Then came Dhoni and he departed at just 9 being run out by Morgan. A surprise, you hardly associate Dhoni getting run out. Meanwhile, the run rate kept rising with now over 8 runs per over. But we all know that Chennai bats so deep that they don’t mind run rate getting even above 10 runs per over. And when Chennai are in trouble they turn to one man, Sir Ravindra Jadeja. Well if Dhoni does not mind him calling that why should we. And Jadeja just tore apart KKR bowling and made a mockery of the rising net run rate. He scored a quickfire 36 of just 14 balls hitting 3 mighty sixes and 3 fours.

Well Chennai won with 4 wickets remaining in the bag. But what costs Kolkata was the very meager score they put up. They rely too much in batting on Gambhir and Morgan and when they didn’t score much the team just fell apart. While in bowling even with Senenayake and Narine giving less than 6 runs per over combined and picking up 2 wickets still it was too much for others to defend this little total. Sir Jadeja was honoured with the Man of the Match award for his all round performance and when Ravi Shastri asked him about his ‘Sir’ title he said “its all in good humour”. All in all a good game with good fight shown by Kolkata but the better team winning in the end.