Sunday, April 27, 2008

Chennai Super Kings cruise to easy win over Kolkata Knight Riders


Chennai Super Kings cruised to an easy victory by nine wickets against Kolkata Knight Riders in the eleventh match of the Indian Premier League on Saturday.

Chasing a moderate target of 148 runs, the Chennai Super Kings achieved it in 16.5 overs when captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni struck a six off Murali Kartik.

After losing the only wicket of Parthiv Patel (21) at the score of 66, opener Matthew Hayden and Dhoni took the score to 152 to get their team win the match by nine wickets here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk.

Hayden made 70 off 48 balls with six fours and three sixes while Dhoni scored 43 off 27 balls with three fours and two sixes. Both remained not out.

Kolkata captain Sourav Ganguly tried seven bowlers but none of theem could take any wicket except fast-medium bowler Ajit Agarkar who claimed the only wicket of the Chennai innings.

By winning their all three matches in the IPL, the Channai Super Kings is now leading the points table with six points where as the Kolkata Knight Riders lost for the first time after winning two successive matches in the tournament.

Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat first but could not bat confidently as the Chennai Super Kings with their fine bowling and superb fielding restricted Kolkata Knight Riders at 147 runs for nine wickets in the allotted 20 overs.

Their top scorer was late-order batsman Laxmi Shukla, who made 42 off 33 balls with four boundaries and one six while wicketkeeper batsman Prasanta Saha scored 27 and opener Brendon McCullum contributed 24.

Mohammad Hafeez (16), Captain Saurov Ganguly (12) and Ajit Agarkar (11) were the only other batsmen who got into double figures.

Fast-medium bowler Jacob Oram captured three wickets for 32 while pacers Palany Amarnath and Manpreet Gony took two wickets each. Renowned off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan could not get any wicket but he conceded only 12 runs in four overs.

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