IPL - 41st Match - Kolkata KN v Chennai SK - Kolkata Batting (Chennai win by 3 runs, D/L method)

Not much is going right for Kolkata Knight Riders, and Sunday night was no different, as the heavens over Eden favoured the visitors.

Chennai Super Kings were 55 for no loss at the end of eight overs, chasing Kolkata's 149-5, and according to the D/L calculations, they needed 53 to win.

This gives Chennai two more points, which they looked like picking up anyway, had the match gone the full duration.

Stephen Fleming and Parthiv Patel negated the only weapon Kolkata had, making sure that the pace battery of Shoaib Akhtar and Ishant Sharma did not make any headway, and kept scoring at the pretty decent clip, which is what in the end culminated in another win for Chennai.

Fleming remained unbeaten on 32, and Patel on 19. Makhaya Ntini did his bit when Chennai fielded, as he returned figures of 4-21, including a hat-trick.

Shoaib didn't look half the bowler he normally does, and Sharma seems to be losing his edge, possibly because of overuse, and that showed.

Kolkata have lost their way and their frontline batsmen never really seemed to get things going, after the initial stages. Against Chennai Super Kings too, the wheels threatened to fall off the Kolkata wagon before Salman Butt and Debabrata Das combined well to give the bowlers at least something to bowl at.

In fact, Kolkata were looking good to score a pretty imposing total as Butt and Das got after the bowling, especially Muttiah Muralitharan, to put up 86 runs.

That was before Ntini returned, to remove Das and David Hussey off consecutive deliveries. The South African fast had also claimed Mohd Hafeez and Sourav Ganguly earlier, and returned figures of 4-21, which may well make a difference.

Earlier, Ganguly won the toss and decided to bat.

In this must-win match, Kolkata have left out Aakash Chopra, bringing in Debabrata Das. Chennai made two changes, replacing Chamara Kapugedera and Joginder Sharma with Parthiv Patel and Makhaya Ntini.

Both Kolkata and Chennai came into the game after humiliating defeats at the hands of Mumbai.

Teams:

Kolkata: Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Sourav Ganguly , David Hussey, Debabrata Das, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajit Agarkar, Ishant Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Shoaib Akhtar.

Chennai: S Vidyut, Stephen Fleming, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, Subramaniam Badrinath, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Albie Morkel, Manpreet Gony, Laxmipathy Balaji, Muttiah Muralitharan, Makhaya Ntini.