The Super Kings stormed back in style on Tuesday night, hammering the Kolkata Knight Riders by 55 runs to take them into third place in the nascent IPL league table. As this correspondent noted two days ago, the Bengali outfit are nearly as overhyped as their owner’s acting skills, and their meek capitulation to a Dhoni-driven Chennai side went some way towards proving it.
KKR got off to a more than decent start, getting rid of the potentially dangerous Matthew Hayden early on. Things were going swimmingly, with regular wickets being taken, until MS Dhoni got going with Badrinath providing an able supporting role. Shane Bond bowled a beautiful line and length, while Murali Karthik made yet another case for a return from the international wilderness – his 4 overs yielded no boundaries, a rarity in this form of the game.
However, Ganguly’s men were powerless when faced with the might of the Indian Captain’s bottom hand. Having scored a measly 81 runs from the first 14 overs of their innings, one would have thought anything from here on in would be too little too late. What followed was nothing short of a violent assault, as 83 runs came off the final 36 balls, Dhoni finishing with a stunning 66 of 33 deliveries – the highlight undoubtedly being the flattest six you will ever see, knocking over a couple of tiger mascots stationed just beyond the mid wicket boundary.
In reply, Kolkata were never really allowed to get going – the rot started in the first over, when Brad Hodge pulled the ball straight to Ashwin at mid wicket. Manoj Tiwary smacked a couple of fours off Manpreet Gony before having his stumps rearranged – he scored 8 runs off 3 balls. Wickets continued to fall with alarming regularity, and every single bowler (bar Suresh Raina) got in on the act. A great team performance by the boys in yellow.
Tomorrow night promises to be a right corker though – the Mumbai Indians take on the Delhi Daredevils in what promises to be the match of the tournament thus far. Come back tomorrow for the review.
Picture Courtesy: Chennai 365
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
