SYNOPSIS: In the battle of spinners, Noor Ahmad and Akeal Hosein outshine Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy as Chennai defeat Kolkata
The Chepauk pitches have long moved on from the time when spinners licked their lips at the prospect of playing here. The low bounce has made way for good carry. There are hardly any dry patches for spinners to get the ball to grip and turn like a spitting cobra.
However, on Tuesday, the Chepauk of old resurfaced much to the liking of the hosts, who had to overcome the choke slam applied by Sunil Narine and Varun Charavarthy, both of whom did a splendid job in the middle overs. Defending 192, Chennai Super Kings spinners Noor Ahmad and Akeal Hosein delivered a masterclass of their own to fashion a 32-run win and keep Kolkata Knight Riders winless.
A chase that never started
Having witnessed their own spinners dictate the game, Kolkata were proactive in their thinking. With runs against the new ball crucial to stay in the chase, and CSK bringing on Hosein as their Impact Player, the visitors tried to spice it up with what they thought was a favourable match-up. They promoted Narine to open alongside Finn Allen in the hope of finding some quick runs, which would allow them to play risk-free cricket against spinners. Instead, Anshul Kamboj and Khaleel Ahmed removed both of them before they could inflict any sufficient damage, setting up the ideal entry for the spinners.
If Narine and Varun had excelled in pulling CSK’s run rate down with well-executed defensive lines, Akeal and Noor had the scoreboard pressure to operate with. With KKR in no position to play them out safely and the pitch providing enough assistance despite the onset of dew, the two left-armers – one orthodox and the other a wrist-spinner – closed out the game in their eight overs. Varying pace and trajectory to good effect, they denied both room and air needed for batsmen to get underneath the ball as they conceded just two boundaries between them, conceding only 47 runs. They bowled as many as 15 dot balls. In a four-over period when they bowled in tandem, they gave away 12 runs and took three wickets, killing the chase.
Choke by spin
Even when Sanju Samson and Ayush Mhatre were scoring effortlessly in the Powerplay, there were signs of what this pitch could turn into shortly. Considering that aspect and how well Narine and Varun operated in the middle overs, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane erred in not introducing them early as CSK racked up 72 runs in the first six overs, losing two wickets. That made a huge impact on the outcome.
When brought on eventually, the two mystery spinners dictated the tempo of the innings. With conditions to their liking, Narine and Varun, who had struggled off late, operated in contrasting ways. The wily Caribbean mixed up his variations while bowling to defensive fields – at one point bowled around the stumps to Samson to cramp him for room, with the leg-side boundary heavily manned.
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Varun appeared a bit restless to start with. But unlike his previous outings, he did something different here. Like Narine, he attacked the stumps, denying room to batsmen and more importantly, hitting his favourite 6m length. Unlike his senior teammate, he bowled a lot quicker, with his fastest delivery being 110kmph. It was one reason he didn’t manage as much purchase as the others, but for a bowler searching for rhythm, Tuesday’ spell was a relief.
CSK batsmen – Samson, Dewald Brevis, Sarfaraz Khan – tried hard to break the shackles, but seldom succeeded. Between 7-11 overs, CSK managed only 33 runs which resulted in Samson giving away his wicket to Kartik Tyagi, who perfectly complemented the spinners with his slow deliveries and wide-of-off-stump defensive channel. Runs dried up, but KKR didn’t get the wickets they would have wanted. However, they still managed to keep the hosts below 200. In the 10 middle overs, CSK managed only 90 for the loss of one wicket. Twenty of those came in Vaibhav Arora’s 16th over.
Beyond their two ace spinners, left-arm tweaker Anukul Roy too played his part as the trio had combined figures of 10-0-68-2. And more importantly, they bowled 26 dot balls amongst them that choked CSK. That sort of job meant that, even at the death, the home team struggled to inject momentum, and managed just three boundaries and 30 runs in the last four overs.
Brief scores: Chennai Super Kings 192/5 in 20 overs (Samson 48, Brevis 41, Mhatre 38; Kartik Tyagi 2/35, Narine 1/21) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 160/7 in 20 overs (Ramandeep Singh 35, Noor Ahmad 3/21) by 32 runs
