Shivam Dube's Efforts Push CSK to 144 Against KKR's Disciplined Bowling
On a track that was slow and dead, Chennai Super Kings could only push to 144-6 against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday at Chepauk. Thanks to a flashy knock from Shivam Dube of 48* and Devon Conway's almost run-a-ball 30, the CSK bowlers have got a total with which they can fight in the second half of the game.
KKR's captain Nitish Rana read the conditions excellently as he attacked with his spinners and change-of-pace bowlers. Kolkata's most successful bowler this season, Varun Chakravarthy, may have put the first breaks on, removing Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ajinkya Rahane, but the main wizard without cape on was Sunil Narine.
Narine made Chepauk go 'Narine, Narine'
The Caribbean tweaker may not have had the season he would have wished, but he came to party against the best team of the tournament. Not just he bowled a miser spell - leading 15 runs in his four overs, but produced two peach deliveries to outclass the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Moeen Ali.
Rayudu, who is already having an awful season, got a dream delivery on the off-stump line, which thought would turn away and he went sweeping. But to his hard luck, the ball turned the other way and finished on the top of the off-stump.
In the very same over, Moeen too got a dream delivery - a corrom ball that castled the southpaw. Just like Rayudu, the Englishman misjudged the spin behind the ball.
Dube again didn't let his troops down
In the last five overs, when the Chennai crowd were chanting 'Dhoni, Dhoni', Dube and Jadeja got the onus of finishing on a high on their shoulders. The burly left-handed all-rounder continued with his swashbuckling hitting as he has been doing whole through this season. He finished the innings with an unbeaten 48, where he got the better of Chakravarthy, Suyash Sharma and Shardul Thakur, but helped CSK push to a respectable.
Dube's partner for the majority of the innings, Jadeja, scored a vital 18 on a sluggish wicket, but lost his breath in the last over to please the Chepauk crowd. His dismissal let Chennai's Thala to walk to play three deliveries in front of his beloved people.
Dhoni may have scored any boundary against KKR but his three-ball knock surely was an eventful one. His shrewdness first forced Vaibhav Arora to bowl a wide and a no-ball, before he got bowled on a free-hit but the Cheetah-like-Dhoni ran like his spirit animal to end with a brace.
 "Arjun Bhalla")
