Chennai Super Kings returned to the winning ways by choking Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Monday, April 8 as they registered a 7-wicket win. Well led by Ravindra Jadeja's splendid bowling performance and Ruturaj Gaikwad's first fifty as CSK skipper, the defending champions chased down a modest 138-run target inside 18 overs.
Jadeja was the star with the ball and showed his humorous self in a fascinating moment during the match. After the fall of the third wicket in the form of Shivam Dube, former CSK skipper Dhoni surprisingly walked out to bat at No.5 with three runs needed from 19 balls. But Jadeja first stepped down from the pavilion and started to walk before stopping well ahead of the boundary and going back.
Then came Dhoni from the pavilion stairs and the CSK crowd went bonkers. The staff management also seemed chuffed with the 42-year-old stepping onto the field to get some game time and enthral the fans. The video is doing the rounds on social media.
Watch the Video here:
Jadeja picked 3/18 in his four-over spell and choked the visitors on a Chepauk track that helped spinners in a big way as it used to do in the previous seasons. Before this game, none of the CSK spinners could pick up even one wicket in the initial two home games but Jadeja scalped three in his initial eight balls only.
The result meant KKR were reduced to just 137/9 from 20 overs. Gaikwad returned among the runs and scored a sedate fifty to take CSK home.
CSK's Playing XI:
Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rachin Ravindra, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell, Sameer Rizvi , Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni (wk), Shardul Thakur, Mustafizur Rahman, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana
KKR's Playing XI:
Philip Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh , Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy