CSK suffer fifth loss on the trot as KKR register monster win

So that's what happens when Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) get the kind of pitch their spinners like. Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali (12-1-55-6 combined) went into Chepauk and burgled wickets away from the five-time IPL champions until Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were a pale, weak shadow of themselves. CSK crumbled to 103 for 9, their lowest IPL total at home, suffered a fifth successive defeat which has never happened before, and are marooned in ninth place on the points table. Welcome back to captaincy, MS Dhoni.

The major characteristic of a black-soil pitch is that it is slow and it grips. It felt like home, which is ironic because home hasn't felt like home for them this season. KKR would prefer to play most of their matches in conditions like this but their attempts to procure them at Eden Gardens haven't gone well. Ajinkya Rahane doesn't even want to talk about it now. He did, however, oversee a phenomenal bowling performance.

He brought Moeen into the XI and set him loose on CSK's two left-hand openers. Devon Conway couldn't overcome the handicap. The KKR offspinner pocketed a wicket maiden. In the next over, Rachin Ravindra was gone. CSK were bleeding by the end of the powerplay, their 31 for 2 only slightly better than the season low of 30 for 3 that they themselves had set, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

Exposing this CSK team's middle order is the only thing their oppositions need to do to win against them. Rahul Tripathi was brought in as Ruturaj Gaikwad's replacement but he couldn't figure out whether he wanted to hit out or play through, and that indecision was reflected in his final score - 16 off 22. Vijay Shankar could have been dismissed for a duck, or for 20, had KKR held on to their catches. Even with those two lives he couldn't push on to make a big score. Shivam Dube walked out with CSK at 59 for 3. He had faced only 13 balls and that was still enough time for the score to slip to 75 for 8, at which point his team was in danger of recording their lowest total in IPL history.

For the 16th time in his IPL career, Narine bowled his four overs without conceding a boundary. No one, having got through their full quota, has been more miserly. He also knocked off Tripathi, who didn't know which way the ball would turn, and Ravindra Jadeja, who didn't know which way the ball would turn, and Dhoni, who didn't know which way the ball would turn. There was some doubt over the Dhoni lbw, though. UltraEdge showed what looked like faint murmurs as the ball passed the bat.

CSK were being smothered. They had to wait 63 balls between boundaries - only two teams have ever been that emphatically silenced in this tournament - and hit just three after the eighth over (one of them off a top edge). They had to bring in Deepak Hooda as Impact Player, accepting the risk of going in a bowler short when they would have to defend this total. But even that gamble backfired. Hooda fell for a duck and one of their key players, Matheesha Pathirana, could not take part in the game.

Defending 103 is a thankless job because bowlers tend to go hard searching for wickets and in that process they leak runs. After underperforming in their batting powerplay, CSK underwhelmed with their bowling powerplay. KKR ransacked 71 runs in the first six overs. This game was a no-contest.