Toss: Chennai Super Kings chose to bowl v Kolkata Knight Riders
© BCCI
After a 13-minute delay to the toss due to the match officials and the Kolkata Knight Riders team arriving late at the ground, Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni chose to bowl first on their return to the M. Chidambaram Stadium. Dhoni said the plausibility of dew impacting the second innings influenced his decision to chase.
Kedar Jadhav’s season-ending grade-2 hamstring tear forced Super Kings into two changes. Sam Billings and Shardul Thakur were brought in for Mark Wood and Jadhav.
Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik said he would have chased as well. Fast bowler Tom Curran was drafted in for Mitchell Johnson.
Both teams came into this game on the back of wins in their first game, albeit in contrasting fashion. Super Kings completed a stunning turnaround to beat Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener, while Knight Riders were resounding winners against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Several local political parties and fringe groups threatened to disrupt Chennai’s first home game in two years, but the match went ahead uninterrupted and on time.
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Sam Billings, 2 Shane Watson, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Shardul Thakur, 11 Imran Tahir
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dinesh Karthik (capt & wk), 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Tom Curran, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Vinay Kumar
Nikhil Kalro is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo