M Dhonii rolled back the years on Saturday night at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, bringing up a vital and fluent half-century which was still not enough for Chennai to avert a 6-wicket crushing defeat at the hands of Kolkata in the Match No 1 of the Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 tournament.
Dhonii scored a superb 50 not out from 38 balls which rescued Chennai from a poor batting performance on a fresh pitch at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai that assisted fast bowling at the start, but turned out to be a dual-paced wicket as the game progressed.
Courtesy Dhonii’s fifty, Chennai were able to finish at a moderate total of 131/5 after they were invited to bat by Kolkata, with a 70-run stand for the 6th wicket between the former captain and the recently-crowned skipper Ravindra Jadeja, giving them something to bowl at.
In their reply, Kolkata finished at 133/4 in 18.3 overs, bolstered by a brilliant 44 at the top of the pile by their new player and experienced campaigner in Ajinkya Rahane.
The Kolkata camp was certainly thrilled with the all-round performance which they came up with in the first match of Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 tournament, especially against a side as formidable as Chennai which has dominated the bilateral proceedings between the two teams.
In their 27 meetings so far, this was only the 9th time that Kolkata had defeated Chennai, which also brought an end to their three-match losing streak against one of the most dangerous and successful teams in the tournament.
Kolkata had lost all three matches against Chennai last year, and commanding victory in the first game of Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 will bolster their confidence going into the tournament.
The highlights of the game included a fine fifty from Dhonii, Dwayne Bravo equalling the record for most wickets in tournament with former Sri Lanka and Mumbai bowler Lasith Malinga, and domestic Indian stalwart Sheldon Jackson impressing behind the wickets.
The tone was set by Umesh Yadav at the start of the contest when he bowled a fiery spell in which he got rid of Chennai opening batsmen Ruturaj Gaikwad (0) and Devon Conway. While Gaikwad flashed hard at one delivery which was moving away from him, Conway failed to get going and could manage only 3 from 8 balls in his maiden outing for Chennai.
Chennai’s senior batsman Robin Uthappa did well to play a counter-attacking innings, smashing 2 sixes and as many boundaries to score 28 from 21 balls but his innings was cut short by Kolkata spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who got him stumped on a delivery sprayed down the leg side.
Chennai captain Jadeja and senior batsman Ambati Rayudu had a horrible mixup in the middle which resulted in the latter being run out for 15 from 17 balls, for which he had hit one six and a four.
Chennai all-rounder from Mumbai, Shivam Dubey played a horrendous stroke on a short ball to be caught by Narine, with the batsman attempting an ugly pull shot without any footwork whatsoever.
Because they kept losing wickets at regular intervals, the flow of runs also stopped for Chennai, something that was largely controlled by Kolkata spinners Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.
Chakravarthy returned with impressive numbers of 4-0-23-1 whereas the West Indian Narine remained wicketless but was busy in his spell of 4-0-15-0.
Dhonii had his troubles against Chennai spinners but somehow managed to hold his fort, and opened up towards the end of the innings to garner quick runs that not only brought him his half-century but also took the team's total past the 130-run mark.
Dhonii was belligerent on anything that was loose or in his hitting zone to get runs. Kolkata fast bowlers Shivam Mavi and Andre Russell, who both had shown control as far as lunch were concerned at the start of the evening, struggled with the wet ball with the new setting in and ended up believing a few full tosses call attempting yorkers.
Dhonii and Jadeja ended up having an unbeaten 70-run partnership for the 6th wicket which lifted Chennai to a respectable 131/5 given how they have started their innings with the bat. While the total was too small to defend, Chennai fought hard throughout the Kolkata innings to keep chipping away with wickets.
In his first match for a new franchisee, Rahane played a convincing knock of 44 from 34 balls with 6 boundaries and a six. His opening partner Venkatesh Iyer scored a run-a-ball 16, whereas Nitish Rana displayed his arsenal of strokes scoring a 17-ball 21 with a couple of boundaries and a six.
Towards the ending stages of the game, Shreyas Iyer and Sam Billings added 36 runs for the fourth wicket while another short 10-run unbeaten partnership was needed between the Kolkata captain and Sheldon Jackson to finish off the contest.
Kolkata will next face Royal Challengers Bangalore on March 30 whereas Chennai will look to bounce back against one of the two new Indian T20 teams, Lucknow Super Giants, whom they meet on March 31.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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