Jamaican blasts IPL champs to improbable win
Russell leads KKR revival
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The Kolkata Knight Riders have scored an improbable win from a seemingly hopeless position thanks to an incredible display of hitting from Andre Russell.
The Jamaican blasted 58 from just 25 balls, featuring five sixes and a four boundaries, in an 80-run partnership with Ryan ten Doeschate (51 from 41) to give KKR a three-wicket win with an over to spare.
Chennai Super Kings had appeared to be in the box seat after posting 4-157 in their 20 overs, then reducing the IPL champions to 3-10 then 5-51 after nine overs.
Australian Pat Cummins was handed the new ball following the withdrawal from the tournament of South African Morne Morkel with a shoulder injury and while the opening over saw a dropped catch at first slip and just five runs conceded, the next three went for a combined 44.
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Dwayne Bravo hit two sixes as 21 came from Cummins third over, including five wides from a leg-side bouncer that evaded wicketkeeper Manvinder Bisla.
Champions in this year's Indian Premier League and also in 2012, KKR have proven themselves one of the domestic superpowers of world Twenty20 cricket, spurred on by consistent opening batting pair Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa.
However, Uthappa was rested for this match and when Gambhir was caught in third over for just six, Manish Pandey followed the next ball to give Ashish Nera two of his four wickets for the night.
MS Dhoni's 35 from 20 balls was the high score for Chennai, who had four other batsmen make at least 20 but none were able to press on and post a half-century.
South African Faf du Plessis, fresh from his amazing form in the Zimbabwe tri-series tournament, made just 14 before he was stumped by a lightning-fast Bisla off the Piyush Chawla.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Yusuf Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Ryan Ten Doeschate, Morne Morkel, Patrick Cummins, Andre Russell.
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Ashish Nehra, Mithun Manhas, R. Ashwin, Ishwar Pandey, Pawan Negi, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohit Sharma, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, John Hastings, Brendon McCullum, Samuel Badree, Francois Du Plessis.