Kolkata Knight Riders put up a brave fight, courtesy some outstanding strokeplay from Andre Russell (54 off 22) and Pat Cummins (66 off 34), before going down to Chennai Super Kings by 18 runs in an exciting contest of IPL at Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

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After a top order collapse while chasing a massive 221 runs, KKR were five wickets down for just 31 runs. When things looked completely out of grasp, Russell and Dinesh Karthik (40 off 24) took charge and swerved the momentum towards KKR with an astounding 81-run partnership off just 39 balls.

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It was a treat to the eyes to see Russell unleashing his beast mode. He continued scoring at a strike rate of over 200 for majority of his innings. With Karthik's able support, he kept KKR’s hopes ticking.

But once both of them got out, disappointment took over briefly before we were witness to some blitzkrieg from the World No. 1 pacer, albeit with the bat this time.

Cummins mesmerized with some power-hitting, scoring his highest-ever IPL runs at a time when the team needed him the most. His unbeaten 66 was studded with four boundaries and six maximums.

Even though in the end, the chase didn't go down as a successful one as KKR got all out for 202 runs, the heart and character shown by the Aussie in a crisis situation will certainly boost the team morale a great deal!

Earlier, put in to bat first, Chennai rode on some spectacular batting performances from their openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (64 off 42) and Faf Du Plessis (95* off 60) to post a massive 220-3 in the stipulated 20 overs.

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Moeen Ali (25 off 12) and Skipper MS Dhoni (17 off 8) played their part too in giving their innings the necessary impetus.