Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on April 21. The match started as a one-sided affair, but soon turned in to a thriller until the last over, courtesy of KKR batsmen. Faf du Plessis was the Player of the Match for his fabulous innings of 95 runs off 60 balls.

Also read: IPL 2021: Chennai thrashes Rajasthan in a one-sided affair

Winning the toss, KKR decided to put CSK to bat first. CSK openers took this opportunity, and started scoring at almost 10 runs per over. Faf du Plessis scored 95 runs, and his partner, Ruturaj Gaikwad from the other end, scored a smashing 64 runs off 42 balls. They put a total of 115 runs for the first wicket, partnership for CSK.

Moeen Ali came towards the latter half of the innings and scored 25 runs off 12 balls. MS Dhoni also smashed a few out of the park, and added his old touch as he scored 17 off just eight deliveries. Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, and Andre Russell chipped in with a wicket each against their name.

Chasing a massive score of 220 runs, KKR got the worst start that they could have imagined, as they lost their five wickets for only a mere 31 runs. But Russell and Dinesh Karthik were not the ones to give up easily and started building their innings. Russell was in his old form as he scored 54 runs off 22 balls, which included his six sixes and three fours. Karthik joined the party with his 40 runs off 24 balls.

After their departure, Pat Cummins kept his team in the hunt with his whopping 66 runs off 34 balls but was unable to take his team to the finish line as there were not enough wickets left to support him till the end.

Deepak Chahar was the star bowler with his four wickets for just 24 runs. Lungi Ngidi also took three wickets, with Sam Curran chipping in with his one wicket, ensuring that KKR do not get to their target.

With this win, CSK is back at the top of the table. CSK has won its last three games consecutively while KKR’s bad run continues as they have lost three consecutive games.