Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets at M Chidambaram Stadium. The match marked the return of MS Dhoni as captain but the legendary cricketer couldn’t weave his magic as CSK registered their lowest-ever total at home.
Sunil Narine had a stunning day against Chennai Super Kings in the ongoing IPL 2025. The all-rounder first picked up three crucial wickets of Rahul Tripathi, Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni and with the bat, he stole the show, smashing 44 runs off 18 balls. Courtesy of his impactful performance, Kolkata Knight Riders won the game by eight wickets.
Overall, the visitors produced a compact performance as CSK looked clueless for the majority of the time period. MS Dhoni’s return as captain was thought to bring some momentum in their way but that was far from the reality. The openers, Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra flopped again and CSK kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Vijay Shankar and Shivam Dube are the only cricketers to have scored over 25 runs in the match. Six of their batters registered in single digits, which is extremely concerning for the remainder of the tournament. For KKR, Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana picked up two each while Moeen Ali and Vaibhav Arora clinched one apart from Narine’s three.
When it came to the chase, Quinton de Kock managed a dazzling start for the defending champions. The former South Africa international went about business towards the beginning, hitting 23 runs off 16 balls. Narine show began soon after that. He wreaked havoc, hitting five sixes and two boundaries during his stay at the crease.
The duo almost got the job done as KKR posted 71 runs in the powerplay. After their dismissals, captain Ajinkya Rahane and Rinku Singh scored the remaining runs as KKR picked up a comfortable win. With the win, they moved third to the points table, with six points to their name in the same number of matches. CSK, on the other hand, remain ninth on the points table and they will play Lucknow Super Giants next.
