Hyderabad: Reigning Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Kolkata Knight Riders romped home to a comfortable three-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in the opening match of the sixth edition of the Champions League Twenty20 here on Wednesday.
Chasing Super Kings’ 157 for 4, the Kolkata-based team achieved the target with an over to spare at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
The Super Kings batsmen got off to starts but could not build partnerships as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Dwayne Smith (20), Brendon McCullum (22), Suresh Raina (28) and Faf du Plessis (14) were guilty of getting out after doing the hard work.
However, from 86 for 4, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (35no off 20) and Dwayne Bravo (28no off 28) put a partnership together and struck some lusty blows towards the end to take the 2010 champions well past the 150-mark in 20 overs.
Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla was the most successful bowler for the Knights with two wickets, while mystery spinner Sunil Narine strangled the Super Kings batsmen. In the end, his figures read a brilliant 4-0-9-1.
In reply, Super Kings pacer Ashish Nehra wreaked havoc among the Knight Riders batsmen, reducing them to 21 for 4.
KKR were tottering at 51 for 5 before Ryan ten Doeschate (51no) and Andre Russell (58) played out a responsible partnership that took the team to 131 before Russell was bowled by Nehra.
By that time, the duo had done the job and it was only a matter of time before the Knight Riders sealed the Group A tie in their favour.
Nehra was the star bowler, picking up four for 21 from his four overs for the Super Kings, while Mohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja picked up a wicket each.
