Uthappa smashed 10 boundaries during his knock of 67
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Kolkata Knight Riders opening batsman Robin Uthappa hammered a fabulous half-century to help his side crush the Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets.
Uthappa was well supported by Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who scored an unbeaten 46.
However, Chennai batsman Suresh Raina deserves some credit as well as he scored a gutsy half-century.
Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir would have been pleased with his decision to bowl first after Chennai opener Dwayne Smith was clean bowled by an absolute cracker of a delivery from Pat Cummins for five runs.
Raina and New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum made up for the early loss of Smith with a 55-run partnership before McCullum was brilliantly caught by Suryakumar Yadav off the bowling of Sunil Narine for 28.
Raina and South Africa batsman Faf du Plessis kept the runs flowing with a 62-run partnership, during which Raina brought up his half-century, before du Plessis was run out by Piyush Chawla for 23.
Raina ended up making 65 off 52 balls, which included three boundaries and five sixes, before he was caught by Ryan ten Doeschate at wide long-on off the bowling of Chawla.
Raina scored a valiant 65
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Chennai eventually finished on 154/4 thanks to captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s quickfire knock of 21.
Cummins, Narine and Chawla picked up one wicket apiece.
Chasing 155 to win, Kolkata got off to an excellent start as Gambhir and Uthappa amassed a 64-run partnership before Gambhir was clean bowled by Ishwar Pandey for 21.
Uthappa went on to score 67 off 39 balls, which included 10 boundaries and a six, before he was caught by du Plessis at long-off off the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja.
Al Hasan and Manish Pandey finished things off with an unbeaten 58-run partnership.
Al Hasan ended up scoring 46 off 21 balls, which included six boundaries and two sixes, while Pandey remained undefeated on 18.
Pandey and Jadeja claimed one wicket each.
Dhoni was disappointed with his side’s performance, and said: “It was a bad toss to lose, the wicket became slightly better to bat on, the bowlers created the opportunities but the fielder couldn’t take it. The wicket was slow to start off, their spinners bowled really well, Raina played another good innings, 10 or 15 runs short.”
Gambhir was pleased with the victory, and said: “I think we were pretty professional with the bat and ball, Bowlers restricting CSK to 154 was exceptional. Hopefully we can turn up in a couple of days and do what we did today. We have quality spinners in the ranks, and irrespective of the pitch they perform, and I want to mention Umesh and Cummins as well, they don’t get mentioned as often as they should.”
Uthappa was named Man of the Match, and said: “I’ve enjoyed batting here on this ground, the crowd is fantastic, I have always done well here, sort of a lucky ground for me. The wicket was coming on well, the dew factor also helped it. I just wanted to play to the merit of the ball. When you play T20 you tend to lose shape technically, that’s what I have been trying to avoid, to not lose shape in the first six overs.”