CSK vs KKR turning point of the match: Rayudu wicket

KKR cruised to a comfortable six-wicket victory against defending champions CSK in the opening fixture of IPL 2022. Sent into bat first, KKR were restricted right from the start, losing wickets at regular intervals and unable to break free. The match also saw contrasting body language from both newly named captains – Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja. While the former was confident and clinical with his bowling decisions in the first innings, the latter looked uneasy throughout.

While the way both captains handled their teams were a factor in the outcome of the match, the turning point of the match was the dismissal of Ambati Rayudu. Although Rayudu scored only 15 runs, he looked in form. CSK were three wickets down at the time after losing Uthappa to a brilliant turning ball from Varun Chakravarthy. Until then, only Uthappa’s wicket fell to a great piece of bowling. The openers had fallen to Umesh Yadav off poor shots. Rayudu, along with Jadeja looked like they would hold the innings together, but a serious judgement error from Jadeja saw Rayudu run out in the 9^th over. Jadeja was on strike and played the ball wide of Shreyas Iyer at short midwicket. He then took a couple of steps indicating a run which caused Rayudu to respond at the other end. Jadeja then stopped, but Rayudu was already halfway down the pitch and was left in no-man’s land when the bails were dislodged.

Post the wicket, Jadeja looked increasingly uneasy and nervous, something that was evident in his body language. He almost run Shivam Dube out too soon after, but Sunil Narine’s attempted throw couldn’t hit the target with Dube miles away from the crease.

Rayudu’s wicket meant CSK were four down early on and it also put Jadeja on the backburner until Dhoni came to the crease. By that time, CSK were scoring at just 4 an over and couldn’t find the acceleration they needed due to the lack of wickets in hand. The wicket was yet another example of CSK imploding, and it had a cascading effect on the team psyche. With a below par score on the board, they were unable to put any real pressure on KKR in the chase as well.