IPL 2022 CSK vs KKR: The first match of the 15th season of IPL between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders was played on 26 March at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. In this match, Kolkata defeated Chennai by 6 wickets and made their winning start in the season. Kolkata won the toss and bowled first, restricted Chennai to 131 for 5 and then chased down the target in 18.3 overs for the loss of 4 wickets. With this victory, Kolkata has also avenged the loss to Chennai in the final of IPL 2021.
Chasing the target of 132 runs from Chennai, Ajinkya Rahane (44) and Venkatesh Iyer (16) gave the team a great start by sharing 43 runs off 38 balls for the first wicket. Rahane then added 33 runs from 22 balls for the second wicket with Nitish Rana (21) to keep the team in the match. However, Dwayne Bravo tried to bring Chennai back in the match by first dismissing Venkatesh and then Rana.
That’s that from Match 1 of #TATAIPL,@KKRiders win by 6 wickets
Scorecard – https://t.co/b4FjhJcJtX #CSKvKKR #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/3yTEtffmYy
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 26, 2022
Venkatesh hit two fours in 16 balls, Rahane hit six fours and a six off 34 balls while Rana hit two fours and a six off 17 balls. After losing three wickets for 87 runs, captain Shreyas Iyer (20 not out) and Sam Billings (25) shared a 36-run partnership of 35 balls for the fourth wicket to take the team to the threshold of victory. Billings hit a four and a six off 22 balls while skipper Iyer hit a four off 19 balls. Bravo took three wickets and Mitchell Santner took one wicket for Chennai.
Earlier, Chennai Super Kings reached a respectable score of 131 runs for 5 wickets. Batting first after losing the toss, Chennai lost their five wickets for only 61 runs. But after this former captain MS Dhoni along with skipper Ravindra Jadeja added 70 runs in 9.1 overs. Mahi managed to score runs at a strikerate of 131.58. This is his first fifty after a gap of three years. Earlier, MS Dhoni had scored 84 runs in 48 balls against RCB in Bengaluru on 21 April 2019. He was unbeaten in this match.
Apart from Dhoni, Robina Uthappa contributed 28 and Jadeja contributed 26 not out. Dhoni scored an unbeaten 50 off 38 balls with the help of seven fours and a six and completed the 24th fifty of his career. Umesh Yadav got two successes for Kolkata and Varun Chakraborty and Andre Russell got one success each.