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A Super show from Chennai Kings

Dhoni hit six fours and three sixes in his explosive knock while Badrinath hit three fours and one six from 33 balls as the duo amassed 109 runs in 65 balls in their unbeaten partnership that helped the visitors post a challenging 164 for three against Kolkata.

In reply, Kolkata lost early wickets and never could recover from the stage as they were bundled out for 109 in 19.2 overs. Tasting victories in the first two matches, KKR stumbled completely to suffere their first defeat, while CSK after losing their first match played excellently to register their first win in the tournament.

Earlier, Batting with disdain, Dhoni dismantled the KKR attack as the home side conceded 58 runs in the last five overs as CSK, after opting to bat first, recovered from a slow start.

The Knight Riders had a disciplined start with their new recruit Shane Bond bowling a tidy fast bowling spell with the new ball as he began his IPL stint conceding just one run from his first over.

On the other end, Ishant Sharma tested Murali Vijay who had a couple of lucky boundaries but it was Bond who really gave the former Australian opener Matthew Hayden some anxious time.

Preferring not to use his mongoose bat, Hayden batted with the conventional willow and took seven balls to open his account. The pressure created by Bond, who had a tidy two over spell giving away just seven runs, was enough to panic Hayden who played on to his stumps in Ishant’s first ball of the second over.

Shuffling his bowlers, Ganguly brought in their leading wicket taker Angelo Mathews and Laxmi Ratan Shukla, a move that saw the run-rate of Dhoni’s team coming down to 4.40 at the end of five overs.

After Hayden’s fall at 16 in the fourth over, Suresh Raina had a tentative start but soon came into his act with Vijay as the duo managed to take the run-rate to six.

But with Ganguly smartly rotating his bowlers, KKR got their second breakthrough in the ninth over. He brought Laxmi Ratan Shukla from the pavilion end gave and KKR got second breakthrough with Vijay inside-edging a full length delivery.

Another bowling change in the form of off-spinner Brad Hodge yielded another wicket as CSK were reduced to 55 for three in 9.1 overs. Raina fell in the off-spinner’s first ball as he found his leg-stump knocked off.

Dhoni started cautiously but opened up only in the 15^th over when he smashed Angelo Mathews for a six over long-on to see the run-rate creep above six. He and S Badrinath hit some lusty blows as they put on 83 runs from the last six overs to take the score past 160.

Dhoni completed his half-century in 28 balls, scoring 17 from Bond’s last over and CSK’s 19^th over.

Ishant, Shukla and Hodge took one wicket each conceding 38, 37 and four runs while Bond returned wicketless conceding 33 runs from his four overs.

Chennai Super Kings

M Vijay b Shukla 33

M Hayden b Sharma 1

S Raina b Hodge 18

S Badrinath (not out) 43

MS Dhoni (not out) 66

Extras: (lb-2, w-1) 3

Total: (for 3 wickets; 20 overs) 164

Fall of Wickets: 1-16 (Hayden), 2-53 (Vijay), 3-55 (Raina).

Bowling: S Bond 4-0-33-0, I Sharma 4-0-38-1, A Mathews 3-0-29-0, LR Shukla 4-0-37-1, M Kartik 4-0-21-0 (1w), B Hodge 1-0-4-1.

Kolkata Knight Riders

B Hodge c Ashwin b Morkel 0

M Tiwary b Gony 8

S Ganguly c Morkel b Kemp 11

W Saha b Balaji 22

O Shah c Dhoni b Balaji 5

A Mathews lbw b Kemp 6

L Shukla c Morkel b Muralitharan 19

R Gavaskar c Vijay b Kemp 2

S Bond b Ashwin 1

M Kartik run out (Badrinath) 21

I Sharma (not out) 6

Extras: (lb-5, w-3) 8

Total: (all out; 19.2 overs) 109

Fall of Wickets: 1-0 (Hodge), 2-8 (Tiwary), 3-34 (Saha), 4-46 (Shah), 5-55 (Ganguly), 6-69 (Mathews), 7-79 (Gavaskar), 8-82 (Shukla), 9-84 (Bond), 10-109 (Kartik).

Bowling: J Morkel 2-1-6-1 (1w), MS Gony 3-0-33-1, L Balaji 2.2-0-9-2, M Muralitharan 4-0-16-1 (1w), J Kemp 3-0-12-3 (1w), R Ashwin 4-0-22-1, S Raina 1-0-6-0.