Chennai Super Kings defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 34 runs in the IPL 2014 Game played at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi. The match was delayed due to heavy rain and later it was reduced into a 17-over game. MS Dhoni won the toss and opted to bat first after considering the dew factor as the weather was cloudy. The Chennai Openers Dwayne Smith (16 off 11 balls) and Brendon McCullum (56 from 40 balls) started in their usual style, but Smith got out early in the hands of Shakib al Hasan. But his partner kept his cool and scored the 3rd half century in just 5 matches. Suresh Raina (31 off 25 balls) played his part while making a good partnership with McCullum of 70 runs. At the end the skipper MS Dhoni (22 runs, 17 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (17 runs, 10 balls) played some big shots to help their team to put up a decent total of 148/3 after 17 overs.
Shakib al Hasan took 2 wickets and conceded only 25 runs in his quota of 4 overs, and the other wicket was taken by the overseas player Andre Russel. KKR’s main weapon Sunil Narine failed to take any wickets whatsoever in this game, which was a major setback for the Kolkata side.
While chasing this total KKR lost their captain Gambhir (6 runs, 6 balls) early. The other opener Robin Uthappa made team’s highest 47 runs from 38 balls. None of the other top order batsmen was able to perform well for Kolkata Knight Riders. Kallis (4 runs), Manish Pandey (1 runs), Shakib al Hasan (0) and Surya Kumar Yadav (8 runs) failed to score runs, which were needed badly to register a win. However, KKR’s power hitter Yusuf Pathan got some sort of his form back in this game as he scored 41 runs from just 29 balls. He tried his level best but could only help his team to make 114/9 after their 17 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja was the star performer from the CSK bowling squad. He picked up 4 crucial wickets while giving away only 12 runs from his 4 overs. The young Mohit Sharma also bowled well, and he took 3 wickets for his team. It was a great bowling performance from the entire Chennai team. Ravindra Jadeja was chosen as the Man of the Match for his amazing performance from both bat and bowl. He made a quick-fire 17 runs and took 4 important wickets to help his team to claim this victory.