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The stage was set for the clarions of the Indian Premier League to blow after a mammoth World Cup for India. It was a perfect set up with the reigning champions the Chennai Super Kings competing with arguably the team with the most passionate fan following, a new look Kolkata Knightriders. The match itself was a perfect advertisement for a prelonged cricket season as Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Super Kings squeezed out a narrow 2 run victory in a match which went down to the last ball. Young Anirudha Srikkanth, son of former India opener Krishnamachari Srikkanth, top scored with 64 to take Chennai to what proved to be just enough 153. The Knightriders were well on course to win thanks to an excellent half-century by veteran Jacques Kallis, but lost wickets at crucial intervals and fell just short in the end.

The script for the opener had been written perfectly with the two Indian heroes from the World Cup Final, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir, captaining the two franchises in action. Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first, expecting the wicket to slow down later. Gambhir on his part shared that he was happy to chase. Dhoni's team selection was largely on expected lines with Albie Morkel, Suraj Randiv, Tim Southee and Scott Styris being the four foreign players selected. Australia's Mr. Cricket Michael Hussey was unavailable for selection due to national commitments while the three other Aussies in the side - Doug Bollinger, Ben Hilfenhaus and George Bailey - in addition to Faf du Plessis and Nuwan Kulasekara were not selected. Gautam Gambhir on the other hand was short of his first choice foreign arsenal due to absence of Australians Brett Lee, James Pattison and Brad Haddin alongwith Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan. He picked just two foreign players, Jacques Kallis and Eoin Morgan, with Ryan ten Doeschate rather unfortunate to miss out. Gambhir picked 3 spinners in his side seeing the nature of the Chepauk track.

Billy Doctrove marked the transition from the World Cup to the IPL with a welcome in Tamil but in Caribbean style. Gambhir opened the bowling with Iqbal Abdullah, the left arm spinner, and tasted success as early as the last ball of the opening over when an over-ambitious Murali Vijay (4) hit the ball straight to mid-on after hitting a boundary on the previous delivery. The Knightriders had even more chances to break through but Yusuf Pathan let them down, first dropping Srikkanth Anirudha off his own bowling and then Suresh Raina who mis-timed a pull off former Chennai man Laxmipathi Balaji. Anirudha made the Knightriders pay as he hit 3 boundaries off Jacques Kallis in the last over of the powerplay.

Raina soon joined in the action, playing some classy shots to get going, particularly peppering the extra cover boundary. Anirudha, attacking much like his father did in his time, lofted leg spinner Sarabjit Ladda over long off for the first six of the tournament. The strategic time-out was taken at the end of the 8^th over and Wasim Akram did his best to motivate his team after the two horrifying drop catches. And it seemed to work but the fielding woes struck again as Eoin Morgan dropped a dolly at square-leg, much to the frustration of Yusuf Pathan who was at the receiving end this time. Raina (33) couldn’t hold himself back and got out next ball hitting the ball straight to Ladda on the ropes. The innings started to slow down with spinners doing brilliantly to keep the Super Kings quiet.

Chennai Super Kings would have planned to get a move on, but the Knightriders’ confidence built by some tidy overs from Ladda and Abdullah, ensured that the spinners maintained a stranglehold on the scoring rate. Anirudha reached 50 as Chennai registered the 100^th run of the innings in the 15th over. Dhoni came in at no.4 and brought some form from the World Cup with him. He started punishing the spinners straight away with his unique power hitting. However, with the ball getting older, it was becoming tougher to strike the ball.

Some brilliant bowling by veteran Jacques Kallis saw KKR pick up the huge wicket of Dhoni for 29 in the 18th over, conceding just 5 runs in it. Balaji responded with an equally effective over from the other end and suddenly Chennai were in danger of falling woefully short of a competitive total. Chennai though ended the innings in emphatic fashion scoring 16 runs in the last over despite losing Anirudha for 64, with Albie Morkel smashing 10 of the last two balls of the innings. Chennai had made their way over to 153, a competitive score, but hardly a devastating one.

The Knightriders slightly surprisingly opened with Manvinder Bisla and Jacques Kallis, with skipper Gautam Gambhir slated to come in one down. Bisla had shown much promise last season with Kings XI Punjab, and it was a great opportunity for him to learn a lot out in the middle alongside a true champion like Kallis. Bisla opened his account with a magnificent cover drive. Kallis, who has been a consistent performers for the Royal Challengers, started with a boundary as well and showed his class while collecting three boundaries in an over from Kiwi paceman Tim Southee. The Knightriders looked in no trouble even though Dhoni rotated his bowlers pretty well and raced to 50 in the 6th over without taking any undue risks.

Runs were coming at good pace and both batsmen countered the Chennai spinners very well. But Bisla (27) danced down the track once too often and was beaten by a tossed up delivery from Shadab Jakati which gave Dhoni a second chance to stump him, one the Chennai skipper was not going to throw away.

Despite a poor World Cup, Yusuf Pathan was promoted to bat at no.3 as Bangalore decided to go for the jugular. Kallis continued to dominate the attack with his deft touches and exceptional timing. Pathan played sensibly and escaped a close stumping decision but fell for 11 to a brilliant direct hit from Dhoni while attempting to pinch a non-existent single. Gambhir kept himself and Eoin Morgan back with the off-spinners bowling and let right-handed Manoj Tiwary go in at no.4.

The match was set for a tense finish with 53 required from the last 6 overs. Tiwary had been sent with a license to score quickly and managed to get some boundaries away. Kallis at the other end fell soon after reaching his half century hitting Ashwin’s carom ball straight to the fielder at short fine leg. Things started to change very quickly as the ball started turning square and Morgan was stumped for 6 off Raina. Gambhir finally came in ridiculously low at no.6 and ran himself out two balls later and suddenly the balance of the match tilted in Chennai’s favor.

With 26 runs needed in the last two overs, it looked as if Dhoni would easily steer his troops home. But Tiwary turned the tide hitting two sixes off consecutive balls in the 19^th over giving the match another twist. With 9 runs needed off 8 balls it was Kolkata's match to lose, but instead of picking up singles and easing to a win, Tiwary lost his head and was stumped off the last ball of the over. A perfect ending to the match was set with 9 needed in the last over with Southee to bowl. Two runs off the first ball to Laxmi Ratan Shukla were followed by the batsman falling to a top edge straight to third man. Abdullah kept calm and managed a couple off the next ball to bring the ask down to 5 from 3 balls but played and missed at ball no.4. He pinched a single of the next delivery, leaving poor Rajat Bhatia, who had not played a ball yet needing 4 to win off the final delivery. It never came as Southee produced a brilliant yorker to deny the Knightriders what could have been a perfect start to their IPL 2011 campaign.

While the result could have easily gone the other way, the stark difference in the captaincy style of the two skippers stood out at the very end. Dhoni, in the World Cup Final batted a position higher than normal at no.5 in an attempt to take on the challenge and guide his side to victory, while Gambhir today shirked his responsibility by slipping down the order, hiding at no.6. The pretender to Dhoni's thrown, so impressive in the 5-0 drubbing of the Kiwis last year will do well to have learnt his lesson tonight and should take plenty of positives from Kolkata's performance while not his own.

Teams:

Chennai Super Kings: Srikkanth Anirudha, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Subramaniam Badrinath, MS Dhoni(c) Albie Morkel, Scott Styris, Ravichandaran Ashwin, Shadab Jakati, Suraj Randiv, Tim Southee

Kolkata Knightriders: Gautam Gambhir(c), Jacques Kallis, Eoin Morgan, Manoj Tiwary, Laxim Ratan Shukla, Manvinder Bisla, Yusuf Pathan, Iqbal Abdullah, Rajat Bhatia, Sarabjit Ladda, Laxmipathi Balaji

Mini Scorecard

Chennai Super Kings 153/4 in 20 overs (7.65 runs per over)
Anirudha Srikkanth 64(55) Jacques Kallis 2-34
Suresh Raina 33(29) Yusuf Pathan 1-19

Kolkata Knightriders 151/7 in 20 overs (7.55 runs per over)
Jacques Kallis 54(42) Suresh Raina 1-3
Manoj Tiwary 27(15) Ravichandaran Ashwin 1-26

Chennai Super Kings won by 2 runs

Also Read: Chennai Team Preview / Kolkata Team Preview / IPL Season 4 Preview

File Photograph Copyright: Michael Henn

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