Shubman Gill’s 57 not out off 36 balls, including six fours and two sixes proved to be a big difference. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
MS Dhoni is Kolkata’s common love
That was Mitchell Johnson’s ‘half-century’. MS Dhoni smoked him over long-on and the Aussie quick’s figures read: 3.5-0-50-0. Johnson eventually finished with 0/51 in four overs but the Eden Gardens gave a hoot to his bowling profligacy. The local fans had been serenading the stadium with ‘Dhoni, Dhoni’ chants since the toss. Four sixes from the Chennai Super Kings captain pumped up the jam. On Kolkata Knight Riders’ home patch, CSK were playing a home game.
“The pitch looks so good that the outfield seems smaller,” Dhoni said at the toss, after being sent in by Dinesh Karthik. The Eden surface, however, was a little drier than normal and offered lower bounce. Shane Watson duly started with a couple of fours in Johnson’s first over. Faf du Plessis at the other end struggled for timing, but he still hit two fours against Piyush Chawla. Shivam Mavi came and impressed at the outset. After going wicketless in the last two matches, Sunil Narine was on the money again.
But another Johnson over once again triggered a momentum-swing, in favour of the visitors. Nineteen runs came off it and CSK romped to 48 for no loss, going at close to 10 runs per over. Then, wickets started to fall. Du Plessis was undone by a Chawla googly. Suresh Raina survived a dropped chance on nine—Karthik couldn’t collect a thin edge —but never looked fully in control, especially against the excellent Mavi’s pace. Watson fell to a faster delivery from Narine and the crowd rose to welcome Dhoni. It’s incredible that Narine hasn’t yet conceded a boundary against the CSK skipper in the IPL. It didn’t change in this game as well. To be fair to Dhoni though, he never had revenge on his mind. He just picked his targets meticulously to up the ante.
A resurgent Dhoni is hardly missing out on the loose deliveries. When Mavi dug one short, he pulled it over the deep mid-wicket boundary. Johnson came and strayed down the leg side, Dhoni flat-batted it over the deep square leg fence.
The left-arm fast bowler overcorrected his line and bowled wide outside the off stump. Dhoni cleared his front leg and cleared the long-on boundary. He was by no means going ballistic but the fans were more than happy. And when Shubman Gill let one slip through his hands to give away another six to Dhoni off Kuldeep Yadav, the crowd went ecstatic.
A 54-run fifth wicket partnership between Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja took CSK’s total 177/5 – their second-lowest in this IPL. The captain remained unbeaten on 43 off 25 balls.
Gill gatecrashes Dhoni’s party
Towards the end, KKR regained their home support, thanks to an 18-year-old, answering to the name of Gill. In a see-saw game, his 57 not out off 36 balls, including six fours and two sixes proved to be a big difference. Given an opportunity to bat up the order for the first time, Gill played a coming-of-age innings.
Narine had the chance to become the show-stopper, after Jadeja uncharacteristically dropped him twice in successive balls in the second over. Those were dollies by Jadeja’s very lofty standards. But it was one of those days. K Asif was the unlucky bowler. Narine, though, flattered to deceive and departed for a 20-ball 30. It became a see-saw contest thereafter. KKR were 90/3 after 10 overs on a par with CSK at the same stage who had lost one wicket. After 14 overs, the hosts moved to 120/4 – 58 needed to win off 36 balls, when Asif had been brought back into the attack. The medium pacer attempted a short delivery to start with. Gill stood tall and gorgeously pulled it over deep mid-wicket. Asif bowled full and Gill’s square drive was right out of the textbook. Only two runs came but class oozed. Asif had been pretty inconsistent with his length. So another short delivery ensued. Gill upper-cut it over deep backward point to add six more runs to his tally. Karthik rounded off the over with another maximum. The 21-run over was the turning point of the match, but in the grand scheme of things, with an eye to the future of the Indian cricket, Gill reaching his maiden half-century with a couple against Jadeja was more significant.
The teenager was India’s shining light at No. 3, with 372 runs in six matches at the ICC U-19 World Cup earlier this year. His maiden hundred in first-class cricket came, batting up the order for Punjab. Inexplicably, KKR had been sending him at the back end of the innings despite buying the starlet for Rs 1.8 crore.
Spare a thought for Karthik also, who played a gem – 45 not out off 18. He added 83 runs in 36 balls with his junior partner in an unbroken fifth wicket stand to take his side home.