KKR opener Shubman Gill showed his intent right from the word go as he gave his side a flying start by smashing CSK pacer Deepak Chahar for two consecutive boundaries on the third and fourth ball of the over. But Chahar managed to bounce back as he came up with a back-of-length delivery on the fifth ball that struck the batter on the pads. The fielding unit immediately went for a huge LBW appeal, and the on-field umpire raised his finger.
Gill instantly called for a DRS, and the replays showed that the ball was missing leg stump and the right-handed batsman got a lifeline. However, another twist was waiting to greet KKR as on the very next delivery, Gill got run out. He pushed a faster one from Chahar towards a short mid-wicket where Ambati Rayudu was fielding.
The opening pair had a mix-up as Venkatesh Iyer ran a few steps and then decided to stop, while Gill had come halfway down the pitch by that time. Gill did put a dive to get back in, but Rayudu was bang on with his throw as he hit the stumps directly to end the innings of the KKR opener.
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CSK wins the nail-biter
Despite the early blow, KKR managed to post 171/6 on the board in their allotted 20 overs. Rahul Tripathi (45 off 33) and Nitish Rana (37 not out) played crucial knocks to put KKR in a good position. Dinesh Karthik (26 off 11) and Andre Russell (20 off 15) also made valuable contributions down the order.
In reply, CSK chased down the target on the last ball of their innings as the game went to the wire. The three-time champions had a good start as Ruturaj Gaikwad (40 off 28), and Faf du Plessis (43 off 30) added 74 runs for the opening wicket, but their middle-order collapse bought KKR back in the game.
CSK needed 25 runs off the final two overs with only four wickets in hand. But Ravindra Jadeja made the daunting task look easy by smashing 22 runs in the penultimate over bowled by KKR pacer Prasidh Krishna.
In the final over, Sunil Narine picked up two wickets in the form of Jadeja (22 off 8) and Sam Curran (4) to give KKR fans some hope. However, Chahar managed to get one run off the last ball to take CSK home.
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