The opening match of the 2022 edition of the Indian Premiere League gave the fans just what they asked for.
The anticipation was high from the get-go as the Kolkata Knight Riders duked it out with the defending champions Chennai Super Kings.
In the end, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders who thrashed CSK by 6 wickets with 9 balls remaining, they ended on 133-4.
Needing a simple target of 132 to win, KKR openers Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer
started the chase, Dwayne Bravo removed Iyer for 17 but Rahane kept playing his natural game.
Bravo then returned and removed Nitish Rana for a quickfire 21 to have KKR at 76-2, despite two wickets the Knight Riders were well along their way to wrapping up the game.
Rahane then fell to Mitchell Santner for 44, but Sam Billings and Shreyas Iyer held the fort and played the field with ease.
Even after Bravo removed Billings for 25 the game was already over as Iyer smashed Adam Milne for a boundary to end the game in style, Dwayne bravo bagged 3-20.
Batting first CSK were off to a cautious start having only scored 43 in the powerplay overs and losing the wicket of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway.
The KKR bowlers continued to eat away at the defending champions as Umesh Yadav bagged two wickets, while Andre Russell and Varun Chakravarthy chipped in with one wicket each.
With the score at 61-5 in 10.5 overs, Ms Dhoni and newly appointed captain Ravendra Jadeja gave their side some hope as they stayed to the very end of the innings.
Dhoni in particular showed that age was just a number as he scored 50 off 38 deliveries while Jadeja chipped in with 26, CSK posted 131-5 in their 20 overs.
