Russell, ten Doeschate stun Super Kings
Blistering fifties from Ryan ten Doeschate and Andre Russell helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by three wickets, despite struggling at 51 for 5 early in their innings
Blistering fifties from Ryan ten Doeschate and Andre Russell helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by three wickets, despite struggling at 51 for 5 early in their innings
Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: Karthik Krishnaswamy
11.35pm That's it from us then. Hope you enjoyed the game, and keep coming back for our live coverage of all the Champions League matches and every other cricket match that happens in the world (well, except the one in your backyard, but we're working on that as well). Till the next time, it's bye bye from me and Chandan.
11.30pm Presentation time. The sponsors have been thanked, the dignitaries introduced. One of them, incidentally, is Michael Kasprowicz, as a "representative of the CLT20".
Gautam Gambhir: "I think after the first 15 overs we thought we could have restricted them to an even smaller total. We didn't start off well in the chase but we always knew it was a matter of a couple of good overs. We have a lot of depth in our line-up and a lot of firepower. We were looking to go hard at the top, it didn't work. The way Russell batted, the way Ryan batted, unbelievable. I need to mention Sunil Narine, he is a special guy. Giving nine runs in four overs, always controls the game for us. This is one tournament we haven't won. Guys are pretty motivated to go out there and turn it around for us."
Andre Russell is the man of the match "Was just positive, coming from the CPL, backing myself all the time. I'm a bit used to getting the team over the line, well done to Tendo as well. We just kept rotating it, he told me to stay positive. When you work hard in training, it becomes natural [hitting big]. It's all about positive. T20 cricket, I love it. Smashin' it. Was a very good wicket, it didn't matter who the bowler was. Wasn't much spin in the wicket. Backed myself against Ashwin and Jadeja to hit them over the line."
Ten Doeschate: "It was a very good wicket. I just tried to watch the ball early on and strategise as I went along. From the first ball I thought it was a good wicket, and the white ball does swing for 3 or 4 overs. I don't think it mattered what I said to him [Russell]. When someone has that sort of firepower, you just leave it to him."
Dhoni: "I don't think we had enough runs on the board. Their spinners bowled very well. I didn't know if we could defend 160 on this track, but the pacers bowled very well. The difference was their lower-order batting, especially Russell and the other guy [I assume he means ten Doeschate]." At some point, he also says Shiv-narine instead of Narine, but he's pretty frazzled right now, so you can excuse him those slips of the tongue. "Ishwar should have told Mohit that the captain has told me to bowl at this end," he says, when asked about the strange bowling change.
11.20pm Tremendous win for Kolkata, considering the situation they were in when Russell walked in - 51 for 5, with 107 to get from 66 balls. All of their top four had fallen for single-digit scores. But Russell played some exceptional shots, going deep in his crease to mess up the lengths of the bowlers, and Ryan ten Doeschate kept his calm and pulled off the big shots whenever needed. They've won with an over to spare, and it's their tenth win in a row.
Chawla is the new man, and Ashwin goes around the wicket
PJ Cummins run out 8 (13m 8b 0x4 0x6) SR: 100.00
Vamsi: "@junai_csk: That's Gambhir's way of contributing to the team!"
Ten off 12 now. Looks like Mohit will bowl this over. Or is it Ashwin? Mohit is ready, at the top of his mark, but I think Dhoni's told him to give it to Ashwin, and this time he can do so, since he hasn't started his run-up. Here's Ashwin.
Piyush Chawla said KKR enjoyed an advantage because they were playing all four of their Group A games in Hyderabad, where the pitch was "already on the slower side"
Plays of the day from the CLT20 game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings
Blistering fifties from Ryan ten Doeschate and Andre Russell helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Chennai Super Kings by three wickets, despite struggling at 51 for 5 early in their innings