Choosing to bat first, KKR probably knew they had to make the most of the powerplay, and Rahamanullah Gurbaz set the tone before becoming the first batter dismissed for 11 off nine balls. He hit a four and a six, swung hard and missed on numerous occasions, and then chipped one straight to midwicket.

Narine and Ajinkya Rahane continued in that spirit, and took KKR to 67 for 1 at the six-over mark, hitting eight fours and two sixes between them during the powerplay. Neither looked in full control – Rahane survived a chance when a diving Matheesha Pathirana put him down at long leg – but both went hard at the bowling in this period. Narine, coming into this game having scored 118 off 48 balls against Ravichandran Ashwin while only being dismissed once, took 14 runs off the offspinner in the fifth over.

Ayush Mhatre, the other injury replacement in CSK’s line-up, fell for a duck off the second ball of the chase. That brought Urvil to the crease, and immediate life to CSK’s innings.

Urvil had already hit one six when KKR gave Moeen the ball for the second over, presumably with the offspinner’s match-up against the left-handed Devon Conway in mind. But Moeen had to bowl to Urvil first, and that contest brought two leg-side sixes in three balls before Urvil took a single. Moeen bowled Conway immediately with a non-turning offbreak that slid between bat and pad.

Urvil hit one more six, a flat-bat monster over wide long-on, before Harshit Rana dismissed him, getting him to edge another attempted big hit to short third. That pattern of CSK’s powerplay continued. Ashwin, promoted to No. 3, and Ravindra Jadeja, hit early boundaries too, but fell off their seventh and tenth balls, respectively. At the six-over mark, CSK were 62 for 5.

Brevis and Dube had steered them to the ten-over mark without further damage, but they had taken 34 balls to add 33 runs by that point, having exclusively faced Narine and Varun. Who knew what would come next?

When Brevis fell in the 13th over, mis-hitting Varun to long-on, the match was far from over. Varun had five balls left to bowl, Narine had six, and Dhoni, before this game, had scored 60 off 111 balls, with six dismissals, of the two mystery spinners in T20s.

But he could afford to take his time, and Dube could ration his risk-taking. He hit just three sixes, but all three were clinical: two straight hits off slower balls from Rana that landed in the slot, and a massive strike over the on side when Arora, having bowled a near-wide and a wide while attempting wide yorkers, straightened his line a touch too far in the 19th over.

That brought the equation down to 10 off nine balls, and CSK were favourites, but Dube fell next ball, miscuing another big hit. When Noor holed out off the last ball of the 19th, CSK were left needing eight runs off the last over.

With Dhoni on strike, though, Russell missed his length, sending down a full toss that disappeared over the midwicket boundary. Russell found the blockhole off the next two balls, and Dhoni, hitting both along the ground towards long-off, refused one single before taking the other to level the scores with three balls left.

Kamboj only needed one ball, chipping over mid-on to put a wildly seesawing game to rest.

Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 183 for 8 in 19.4 overs (Dewald Brevis 52, Shivam Dube 45, Urvil Patel 31, Ravindra Jadeja 19, MS Dhoni 17*; Vaibhav Arora 3-48, Varun Chakravarthy 2-18, Moeen Ali 1-23, Harshit Rana 2-43) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 179 for 6 in 20 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 11, Sunil Narine 26, Ajinkya  Rahane 48, Andre Russell 38, Manish Pandey 36*; Anshul Kamboj 1-38,  Noor Ahmad 4-31, Ravindra Jdeja 1-34) by two wickets

[Cricinfo]