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Brevis inspires CSK to consolation victory over KKR

cricket07 May 2025 18:32| © MWP
By:Neil Manthorp
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Dewald Brevis played a scintillating role for the Chennai Super Kings as they escaped from a seemingly hopeless situation to beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by two wickets with two balls to spare in their IPL match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Batting at No 6 Brevis lashed a stunning 52 from only 25 balls with a quartet of fours and sixes to revive the CSK run-chase having slumped to 62-5 in the Power Play in reply to KKR’s 179-6.

Home captain Ajinkya Rahane and Andre Russell led the way for KKR with Rahane top-scoring on 48 from 33 balls and Jamaican Russell smashing 38 from just 21 balls (4x4, 3x6), but there was always a sense that the total was 10-15 runs below par.

But when CSK crashed to 62-5 in the Power Play it seemed they had conceded the game. Not so.

Brevis took 30 runs off the 11th over of the innings from seamer Vaibhav Arora (3-0-48-3) with three fours and three sixes to reach 50 from just 22 balls and put the men-in-yellow firmly back into the contest while Shivam Dube contributed a sedate and sensible 45 from 40 balls to keep things interesting.

CSK openers Ayush Mhatre and Devon Conway were both dismissed for two-ball ducks but Urvil Patel whacked a defiant 31 from 11 balls with four sixes.

The promotion of Ravichandran Ashwin (8) to No 4 was a failed gamble and when Ravindra Jadeja fell for 19 KKR were strong favourites.

Forty-three-year-old MS Dhoni (17* from 18 balls) had the final say, however, after scratching for runs in his first 15 deliveries – without the pressure of an imposing run-rate – he was on strike for the final over from Russell with just eight runs required and blasted a low full-toss over the long-on boundary to win the game although Anshul Kamboj (4*) actually struck the winning boundary.

The result has almost certainly eliminated KKR from playoff contention, barring a series of unlikely results elsewhere, while CSK moved from the very bottom of the log to not quite so far at the bottom with six points, just behind Rajasthan Royals on net run-rate in 10th place.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wkt), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Devon Conway, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, MS Dhoni (captain/wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Anshul Kamboj, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana

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