IPL 2023: Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana slam fifties as KKR halt CSK's quest to stay at top with a 6-wicket win
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Rinku Singh starred once again in a crucial chase as he slammed 54, while KKR captain Nitish Rana remained unbeaten on 57 to help the touring team stand tall by six wickets in Chepauk.
Twin fifties from the left-handed pair of Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh helped KKR pull off a crucial six-wicket win over Chennai at Chepauk on Sunday night.
Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad got CSK off to a flyer on a tricky track after MS Dhoni elected to bat first. Varun Chakravarthy picked up Gaikwad in his first over as spinners looked to dominate against the star-studded CSK XI. Conway and Ajinkya Rahane stitched a 30-run-stand before four wickets put the home side on the backfoot.
The left-handed pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dube then steadied the ship, with lanky Dube being the aggressor of the two. The man in form kept smashing the poor balls past the boundary rope, but some tight bowling from the spin trio of Varun, Sunil Narine and Suyash Sharma kept CSK quiet throughout.
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Following Jadeja’s wicket in the final over, the crowd puller MS Dhoni made his presence felt but couldn’t do much damage with the bat as he managed just two of as many balls. CSK scored a gritty 144 for six in the first innings.
The chase, meanwhile, didn’t start the way KKR would have liked as they lost opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz inside the first over itself. It was about time before Deepak Chahar removed Venkatesh Iyer and accounted for Jason Roy, as KKR was reeling at 33 for three at one stage.
The pair of Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh took the onus on them and bailed the team out of trouble. Both kept rotating strike and made most of the bad deliveries by smashing them for boundaries. None of MS Dhoni’s bowlers could stop them from building a foundation on which they eventually took the game home.
The man for KKR this season, Rinku Singh, completed his fifty, while Rana also reached his half-century shortly. Just when it looked like the pair will take the team home, Moeen Ali’s direct throw removed Rinku on 54.
Rana and Andre Russell then completed the formalities in the second-last over as KKR won the return leg with six wickets in hand and delayed MS Dhoni-led CSK’s playoffs qualification.
