New Delhi: MS Dhoni's unbeaten fifty went in vain as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) attained an easy six-wicket win over defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL 2022 season opener at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.
Chasing a paltry 132-run target, KKR openers Iyer and Rahane gave their team a good start as they set the platform by scoring early runs. CSK bagged some quick wickets in the middle but skipper Shreyas Iyer along with Sam Billings helped Kolkata get over the line without needing any power-hitting from their lower batting order.
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Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and opted to bowl first. The seasoned combo of MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja pulled CSK out of a crisis as their unbeaten 70-run partnership powered the yellow army to a respectable 131/5 against Kolkata.
Shreyas Iyer & Co. were brilliant in the first 17 overs. Chennai was five wickets down after 12 overs as they kept losing wickets. Dhoni and Jadeja then produced a very special fifty partnership to score 47 runs off the last three overs.
CSK were 67/5 when Dhoni came out to bat at number 7 in the 11th over and from there he started building the innings before launching an attack on the opposition. The veteran finisher scored 50 runs from 38 balls with 7 fours and a six. 34 runs in his innings came off just 16 balls.
CSK playing XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja (c), Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni (wk), Dwayne Bravo, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tushar Deshpande
KKR playing XI: Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Sam Billings, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Umesh Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy