Jadeja's late assault blasts CSK to pulsating victory

Ravindra Jadeja struck the final two balls of the match for six to secure an extraordinary six-wicket victory for the Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday evening.

In a pulsating finish which saw the ‘lead’ fluctuating with every ball in the closing overs, Chennai needed 30 from the final two overs and took 20 of them from Lockie Ferguson’s 19th over – eight of them fortunate edges.

Highlights

Seven were needed from the final two balls and left-handed Jadeja walloped Kamlesh Nagarkoti for successive maximums to conclude another consolation victory for Chennai who were the first team to be eliminated from playoff contention.

Rockstar Jadeja's match-winning 31*(11)

Opener Ruturaj Gaikwad laid the platform for the late assault with a fine 72 from 53 balls (6x4, 2x6) while Ambati Rayudu ensured CSK never fell behind the required run rate with 38 from just 20 balls.

Ruturaj Gaikwad's spectacular 72(53)

Earlier Nitish Rana scored a fine 87 from 61 balls to lead KKR to a total of 172-5. The left-handed opener reached 50 a just under a run a ball before smashing the first three deliveries of the 16th over from legspinner Karn Sharma for six to change the course of both his and the team’s innings.

But he heaved the first ball of the 17th from Lungi Ngidi high into the night sky for Sam Curran to take an excellent catch to end his innings on 87 with 10 fours and four sixes.

Rana's pyrotechnics of 87(61)

Sharma earlier bowled Shubman Gill for 26 (17 balls) and Sunil Narine (7) and Rinku Singh (11) both fell to big hits against spinners Mitchell Santner and Ravindra Jadeja.

Captain Eoin Morgan (15) mistimed Ngidi to long-off in the final over but his predecessor, Dinesh Karthik (21* from 10 balls), struck three quick boundaries which may just be the difference between a competitive and a winning score.

CSK’s run chase started when Shane Watson’s horrible tournament continued with a sluggish 14 from 19 balls but Ambati Rayudu injected some much-needed energy with 38 from only 20 balls but Jadeja ensured a second consecutive consolation victory finishing with an unbeaten 31 from just 11 balls with two fours and three sixes.

Ngidi was the pick of the Chennai bowlers with 2-34 from his four overs although Curran (0-21) and Jadeja (1-20) from three overs apiece did as much to restrict KKR in the middle overs.

Chennai were already eliminated from the play-offs and KKR are too, unless an extraordinary series of results - and run rates – work in their favour.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), N Jagadeesan, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Santner, Karn Sharma, Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Eoin Morgan (capt), Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Varun Chakravarthy