IPL 2021: So Close, Yet So Far For KKR, Chennai Super Kings Manages To Win Despite Brisk Batting By Russell And Cummins | Match Summary

CSK Vs KKR: It was a big-scoring game at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. At one position, KKR was 31/5 while chasing 221. How did the match transpire? Read below.

Image: Twitter/@KKRiders

IPL 2021, CSK vs KKR: Pat Cummins could have been the hero for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) with the bat. He scored 64 runs and became KKR’s top scorer. But despite that, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) win by 18 runs courtesy of good innings by Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf Du Plessis , who also won the man of the match award for his 95.

KKR had won the toss and decided to field first, like any team would do at Wankhede. CSK scored 220 runs in the first innings. None of the KKR bowlers looked threatening. Even MS Dhoni came to the fore today as he hit a couple of boundaries and a six.

But the match really got interesting after the end of power play, when KKR had lost half their team and it looked like they would just get all out before the 15^th over. KKR’s score at one point was 31/5. That’s when Andre Russell stepped up and scored a 21-ball fifty. Karthik was giving him good company by Russell misjudged a Sam Curran ball and got bowled from behind his legs. But that was not it, KKR’s real hopes came alive when Pat Cummins sent Curran for a 28 run over. Things got really tense and it all ended in an anti-climatic way for KKR as Prasidh Krishna got run out at the non-striker end taking a second run to put Cummins back on strike.

It was a great T20 match. KKR would take a lot of positives out of this game. Let’s see what the captains say after the match:

Eoin Morgan: “Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik really did put a partnership together, once you do that taking advantage of the conditions here, it's very difficult to stop. A partnership going in that manner and then following that Pat Cummins the way he played really gave us every chance towards the end”

Winning Scenes

MS Dhoni: “From the 16th over onwards the contest was between the fast bowler and the batsman. You can't do too much. Can't put different field. It's about you vs me. The side that has one is a side that has executed slightly better. But if they would've had more wickets, could've been different.”