A Win atlast for the Knight Riders

Chennai Super Kings Vs Kolkatta Knight Riders - Match 51 - SuperSport Park, Centurion

Kolkatta surprised themselves and the entire cricketing community by beating the Chennai Super Kings at Centurion. Being the first team to be eliminated from the tournament and languishing at the bottom of the table with their own set of controversies, this win would do Kolkatta a world of good in terms of morale and confidence. Chennai who decided to bat first, started off brilliantly with both Pathiv Patel(25 of 19 balls) and George Bailey(30 of 27 balls) making their intentions clear. A double blow in the form of run-outs gave some hope for the Knight Rider bowlers, but they were not successful in denting the Chennai line up further. Raina and Dhoni were carried it on from where Bailey and Parthiv left. Raina made a brilliant 52 from 36 balls before Dinda got rid of him in the 17th over. Dhoni(40 from 28 balls) on the other end stayed unbeaten and he along with Morkel(21 from 10 balls) who for the first time in the tournament looked ominously with the bat propelled Chennai to a score of 188.

A target of 189 according to the standard of batting displayed by Knight Riders so far was a near impossible task and many thought that Kolkatta would proceed to yet another victory. The early wicket of Ganguly seemed to be the first casualty in another heavy defeat, but McCullum and Hodge had other plans in mind. Playing nothing but dignity and no pressure to qualify for the semis, McCullum played a captains knock scoring 81 from 48 balls. McCullum's knock was studded with 11 fours and three sixers. He was brilliantly supported by B Hodge(71* from 44 balls) and they made Chennai bowling look second class. Chennai had a glimmer of hope when they striked with the wickets of McCullum and Hussey, But a cameo from Saha(26* from 13 balls) and Balaji giving 19 runs of the penultimate over sealed the game for the Kinght Riders. As Dhoni summed it "I have never seen a poor bowling performance like this". Its high time Chennai concentrate on their bowling to stand a chance of winning the tournament.

Toss
Chennai Super Kings won the toss and chose to bat first.

Brief Scores
Chennai Super Kings - 188/3 in 20 overs(S Raina - 52, MS Dhoni - 40*, Dinda - 1/29)
Kolkatta Knight Riders - 189/3 in 20 overs(B McCullum - 81, B Hodge - 71*, M Muralitharan - 1/16, S Jakati - 1/36)

Result
Kolkatta Knight Riders won the match by 7 wickets.