An electric 71 not out off just 29 balls by Ajinkya Rahane helped Chennai Super Kings rack up this season’s highest total of 234-5 as they blew away Kolkata Knight Riders and moved top of the IPL table on Sunday.
Despite a blistering 61 off 26 by Jason Roy and a valiant half-century by Rinku Singh, Kolkata fell 49 runs short in front of 60,000 fans at a noisy Eden Gardens stadium to suffer their fourth straight defeat.
Put in to bat, opener Devon Conway hit his fourth consecutive half-century before Rahane and Shivam Dube launched into the Kolkata attack with a barrage of 10 sixes and eight fours to put on 85 off just 32 balls.
Once Kulwant Khejroliya dismissed Dube in the 18th over Rahane moved up a gear, smashing 21 runs off the final five balls he faced to give Chennai their third-highest total in IPL history.
“I came into the season with a clear mind and trying to enjoy my batting,” Rahane said. “Playing with (Chennai captain) MS Dhoni, he makes you feel that you can achieve anything.”
Dhoni said: “They (crowd) came in big numbers. Whenever there’s a next KKR game, they will come supporting them. Yes, the fast bowlers and spinners have been doing their job.”
Kolkata got off to a disastrous start, with Sunil Narine falling for a duck to Akash Singh and Narayan Jagadeesan back in the hutch for one to leave the hosts flailing on 1-2. Venkatesh Iyer struck a useful 20 before falling leg-before to Moeen Ali and Nitish Rana made 27 as Roy raced to his 50 accompanied by the dangerous Rinku. But the English bruiser was out-foxed by Maheesh Theekshana and Rinku - who made 53 not out - lost partners, with Andre Russell, David Wiese, Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy all out cheaply.
Theekshana ended with 2 for 32 and Tushar Deshpande figures of 2 for 43.

BRIEF SCORES
Chennai Super Kings 235 for 4 (Rahane 71, Conway 56, Dube 50, Khejroliya 2-44) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 186 for 8 (Roy 61, Rinku 53, Theekshana 2-32, Deshpande 2-44) by 49 runs