IPL 2018: Gill, Karthik shine as Kolkata beat table-toppers Chennai by 6 wickets

Young cricket talent Shubham Gill and skipper Dinesh Karthik dominated the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai, while chasing a target of 176.  

Gill and Karthik remained unbeaten and scored 57 and 45 respectively to defeat the IPL league's table-toppers.

Karthik played a skipper's knock and led from the front to take his team to the victory side. 

His fabulous innings came in just 18 balls which included seven fours and one six.     

Gill came to bat at number four when Kolkata were 64 for the loss of three wickets. He took some balls to settle but later smashed a half-century off just 36 balls.

Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine opened for the franchise an contributed 12 and 32 respectively.

Robin Uthappa failed to contribute this time and departed after making just six runs. 

In the 33rd match of the IPL 2018, Kolkata won the toss and asked Chennai to bat first at the Eden Gardens. 

Shane Watson and Faf Du Plessis opened for Chennai and scored with the run rate of over 9 per over. 

Kolkata bowlers could not get a breakthrough in the initial overs and the batsmen did not face much resistance from the bowlers.

Chennai ended the innings scoring 177 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Dhoni contributed a significant 43 runs.

Speaking after the toss, Karthik said, "We would like to bowl first. The way we have been chasing decently and we back that. It's important to be aware of your strengths and try to keep playing to that."

"I think we have been playing well both in terms of batting and bowling. One change for us. Nitish Rana is out and Rinku Singh is in," he added.

When Asked Dhoni about his strategy for today, he said, "We wanted to bowl first as well. The wicket has been so good that the outfield seems a bit smaller."

"Otherwise, it has been a good venue. Need to improve on our death bowling, what's important for us is to bowl according to our field. That's the only concern for us. Same squad for us," he added. 

Teams:

Kolkata (Playing XI): Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, Shivam Mavi, Piyush Chawla, Mitchell Johnson, Kuldeep Yadav

Chennai (Playing XI): Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Karn Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Lungi Ngidi, KM Asif