As it happened - Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL 2022

Captain Shreyas Iyer ends it in the 19th over with a boundary to end up with a win on his debut for KKR. It was a night when KKR hardly put a foot wrong. Right from winning an important toss, KKR had their plans and execution in place. The fast bowlers exploited the help in the pitch with the new ball before denying CSK anything full. Then the mystery spinners choked out the middle of the CSK innings. it was a slightly tricky surface but 132 was not going to test them a lot, especially in the dew. CSK's golden oldies, though, came good: Dhoni with a fifty and Bravo with a three-for. Thanks for joining us. See you for the double-header tomorrow.

With another slower ball, Dwayne Bravo gets his third wicket of the night, which takes him level with Lasith Malinga at 170 wickets, the most anyone has taken in the IPL. KKR, though, are well on their weay with nine required off 15 balls.

That was a longish spell without a boundary, but KKR are still in charge at 112 for 3 in 16 overs. They need 20 off the last four.

Ajinkya Rahane has fallen for 44 off 34, a very Rahane score, but one that works in a small chase and is probably worth more on a truer surface. The one thing that KKR will like about his innings is his intent. He tried to hit out every time the bowlers bowled in his zone. He got a reverse-swept boundary too, and even in the over he got out he tried to hit a six before the dismissal. That has got to be his role: use the powerplay restrictions, and then hit out or get out. KKR 87 for 3 in 11.4

Nitish Rana knows a short ball is coming, he has his short fine leg picked, which he wants to clear, he gets inside the line and pulls, but Dwayne Bravo has bowled a slower one. Rana fails to clear the man, and Bravo has two. KK, though, are well on their way at 76 for 2 in 10 overs.

Dwayne Bravo draws the edge from Venkatesh Iyer in his first over, and debuts his new dance, The No. 1 dance. It is an easy one even for those with two left feet. Stand with your legs shoulders' width apart and wave your index finger. KKR 43 for 1 in 6.2 overs. In comes Nitish Rana, who will be tested with the short ball.

What do you want in a middling chase on a slightly tricky surface? A good start. And that's what KKR have got, racing away to 43 for 0 in the powerplay. A brand-new pairing of Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer has done the job for them so far, but the spotlight will be on Rahane now that the field has spread. He is 27 off 22.

This is not much of a score at Wankhede but two smaller scores have been successfully defended before: 118 by Sunrisers in 2018 and 129 by Pune Warriors in 2012. The pitch looked like a belter to everybody but it seems there is some moisture in it, which is helping the ball grip. So there is hope still for CSK.

He's 40, he's given up the captaincy, and he plays no cricket other than the IPL, but if you thought he's preparing to slip into some sort of mentorship role at CSK, well, maybe not. MS Dhoni begins IPL 2022 with 50* off 38 balls, and he's outshone Ravindra Jadeja as CSK ransack 47 off the last three overs to finish on 131 for 5.

Will that be enough? Who knows, but for now let's celebrate Dhoni's innings. He hit two fours in the final over off Andre Russell, and the second was almost, but not quite, the helicopter. An attempted yorker landed maybe a couple of inches short of where Russell wanted it, and Dhoni cleared his front leg to create a bit of room, and brought all the power of his his bottom wrist into play to whip it and beat long-on easily to his right.

Jadeja, who didn't hit a single boundary in his first 27 balls, slices the last ball of the innings over the cover boundary for six, and finishes on 26*.

That's how the last three overs went, by the way.

KKR need 132 to start their season with a win, and you'd make them favourites, but Dhoni's given CSK something to try and defend. Sidharth Monga will be here with you soon to bring you his insights from KKR's chase.

Shivam Mavi had conceded 20 off his first three overs, bowling mostly hard length. In the 19th over, however, he also tries to slip in the yorker, and he misses his length a couple of times. The first full-toss is a low one, and Dhoni does very well to reach well in front of his body to loft the ball over extra-cover. The second one is above waist height, and a no-ball, and Dhoni swats it away for six, off the top edge but they all count.

15 off that over, and CSK are 113 for 5 in 19.

Three fours in the 18th over, bowled by Andre Russell, and two of them were the result of Dhoni making use of the depth of the crease to convert good-length balls into shortish balls: one a precise cut when he didn't have that much width, and the other a horizontal-bat paddle through square leg.

CSK are 98 for 5. Can they somehow get to 125-130?

And it's partly because of a misfield at mid-off from Varun, after Dhoni punches Umesh off the back foot.

A quick mention of how well KKR's quicks have bowled today. There's been a bit of bounce and seam movement from a good length or just short of it, and they've kept it on those lengths, without offering width, and barely bowled any full balls, aware that the short straight boundaries present some of the easier scoring options at the Wankhede.

Some insightful thoughts from Harshal Patel in the above video, by the way, on bowling at the Wankhede and on red-soil pitches in general.

Anyway, before that boundary, CSK were 73 for 5 at the end of the 15th over, and Gaurav Sundararaman points out that it's their second-lowest 15-over score in the IPL.

That Dhoni has struggled against Narine is widely known. The contest has now stretched to 66 balls in the IPL, and produced just the one boundary. But since Dhoni's arrival, KKR have taken Narine out of the attack, and bowled Varun, Russell and Shivam Mavi. Narine still has two overs left to bowl.

Perhaps they know that with the situation what it is, Dhoni isn't going to go after anyone right away, and maybe they'll try to force his hand later, when he has to . Varun (spin early in his innings) and Russell and Mavi (hard lengths) aren't the types of bowlers Dhoni has scored too quickly against of late either.

The second strategic time-out ends, and we'll finally have Narine vs Dhoni to start the 15th over. Dhoni's batting on 5 off 13, and Jadeja on 11 off 16.

Andre Russell bangs the ball into the pitch, cramps Shivam Dube on the pull, and the ball lobs gently to midwicket to leave CSK 61 for 5 in the 11th over.

KKR could have had Dube earlier in the over too, after another bit of uncertain calling from Jadeja. Similar circumstances to the Rayudu run-out - the ball played to the right of short midwicket, a start, and a belated no. Sunil Narine's throw missed the stumps, however, and Dube survived. Another quick single came soon after, with Narine hitting the stumps direct at the striker's end but Dube just making his ground, and then the wicket ball.

It's all happening, and it's all going KKR's way. MS Dhoni walks in to a thunderous reception from the 25% capacity crowd at the Wankhede.

Ravindra Jadeja has just walked in at No. 5. He clips Sunil Narine into the on side, and takes a start. Rayudu takes it as a cue to hare out of his crease at the other end, and he's too far gone by the time he realises Jadeja doesn't actually want the single. Too close to Shreyas Iyer anyway - he just has to take a few steps to his right at short midwicket and lob the ball to the bowler.

CSK are 52 for 4 in 8.4 overs.

He's been one of the Ranji Trophy's most consistent run-getters, but he's only played four previous games in the IPL, all of them back in 2017.

He keeps wickets only in white-ball cricket for Saurashtra, but he's got the big gloves ahead of Sam Billings for this game, and he's shown why. Uthappa steps out to try and work Varun into the leg side, but he's completely foxed by the dip and beaten by sharp turn down the leg side. Jackson slides silently to his left and makes a difficult leg-side stumping look easy.

CSK are 49 for 3 in 7.5 overs.

Six runs off Varun Chakravarthy's first over, but it could easily have been two runs and a wicket. Pretty much every ball of the over was a wrong'un, but more than the direction of the turn, I think he was troubling Rayudu with his dip. He bottom-edges an attempted sweep, and the leg stump shudders as the ball runs away for four. No one can quite believe the bail didn't fall off.

CSK end the powerplay at 35 for 2.

In the next over, Uthappa cuts Sunil Narine in the air, and the ball hits the right hand of Nitish Rana diving full-length at backward point, but he can't convert the tough chance into a catch. CSK end the seventh over at 42 for 2.

Umesh gets another, in his third straight over of the powerplay. Both he and Shivam Mavi have been looking to largely bang the pitch on a hard length, and one such ball catches Conway's bat high up as he looks to whip it over midwicket. Gets no timing on it, and he plops an easy catch to mid-on. It's 28 for 2 in four overs.

And CSK don't bring in a left-hander for the left-handed Conway. It's right-right at the crease with Ambati Rayudu walking in.

He's moving across to off stump, and sometimes even outside, with his trigger movement, and he's causing KKR's fast bowlers a bit of trouble. He's hit two fours and two sixes in getting to 22 off 14 balls, and all of them have been a result of that shuffle allowing him to access the leg side, especially behind the wicket.

CSK are 28 for 1 in four overs.

Here's some chatter from our Slack channel:

Gaurav Sundararaman: Umesh Yadav actually has a better record than Deepak Chahar in IPL powerplays - here are the numbers on Ask Cricinfo.

Nagraj Gollapudi: Those numbers support what KKR coach Brendon McCullum had to say on the eve of the tournament: "Umesh Yadav was a really good pick-up for us in the auction because of his ability to swing the ball upfront and he is also a wicket-taker too. His statistics in powerplay are really, really good and that’s where we’ll look to try and use him."

A typically Umesh Yadav first over. Two nip-backers to hurry and cramp Ruturaj Gaikwad, one of them a no-ball. One wide down the leg side, two sharp outswingers. Gaikwad slashes at the second one, and gets a thick edge that Nitish Rana catches at slip, above his left shoulder. CSK are 2.1 halfway through the first over.

CSK bat all the way till Adam Milne at No. 10. They have four left-handers whom they can use tactically based on match-ups: Conway, Jadeja, Dube, Santner. KKR have two mystery spinners to control the middle overs.

Both teams are missing important players, though, with Moeen Ali, Aaron Finch and Pat Cummins particularly big misses for their respective teams. KKR like to go hard through their 20 overs with the bat, but their line-up, for me, lacks a bit of muscle today.

Shreyas Iyer has won the toss, and KKR will bowl first. And they're only playing three overseas players: Sam Billings, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine.

Iyer, Billings and Ajinkya Rahane are making their debuts for the franchise.

Devon Conway, Dwayne Bravo, Adam Milne and Mitchell Santner are the four overseas players for CSK. Three New Zealanders in their XI, two of them making their CSK debuts, and Conway playing in the IPL for the first time. It'll be interesting to see where he bats.

Here are the XIs:

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Venkatesh Iyer, 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Sam Billings, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Sheldon Jackson (wk), 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Shivam Mavi, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.

Chennai Super Kings: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 Ravindra Jadeja (capt), 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Dwayne Bravo, 10 Adam Milne, 11 Tushar Deshpande.

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